FRAGRANT FLOWERS AND LEAVES 295 



a moment later pulled down a spray of the jasmine 

 vine that festooned a window, as we see it in England 

 but never here, and carefully cut off a cluster of its 

 white stars by aid of a pair of the long, slender flower- 

 picking scissors that hung from her belt by a ribbon, 

 twisted the stems together, and placed them in Martin's 

 buttonhole almost without touching it. 



"Having done this, she seemed to forget us and 

 drifted away among the flowers, touching some gently 

 as she passed, snipping a dead leaf here and arranging 

 a misplaced branch there. 



" We left almost immediately, but have been there 

 many times since, and though as a whole the garden 

 is too heavily fragrant, I thought that it might suggest 

 possibilities to you." 



As Aunt Lavinia paused we were turning from the 

 main road into the narrow but beautifully kept lane 

 upon which the Herb Farm, as it was still called, 

 was located, by one of those strange freaks that some- 

 times induces people to build in a strangely inaccessible 

 spot, though quite near civilization. I know that you 

 must have come upon many such places in your wan- 

 derings. 



Of course my curiosity was piqued, and I felt, be- 

 sides, as if I was about to step into the page of some 



