THE SIX OF SPADES. 119 



to them his favourite toast, " pulchrse puellae, novies 

 honorandae " ("the Ladies, with three times three") 

 requesting them to drink without heeltaps (the 

 Latinity for heeltaps is lost*), " Vivat Eegina 

 Florum!" ("Long Bloom the Rose!"). 



I leave yon, dear brothers, in their sweet society. 

 Tend them with all love and care; and then, as 

 surely as from the rose-trees of sunnier France comes 

 the chief glory of our English gardens, you shall 

 rejoice to repeat from a thankful heart, " ROSE EST 

 BONHEUR ! " 



CHAPTEK VIII. 

 MB. OLDACRE'S STORY THE LADY ALICE. 



MR. PRESIDENT AND FRIENDS, You must " pity the 

 sorrows of a poor old man, whose trembling limbs," 

 and here he glanced complacently at his well-filled 

 gaiters, "have borne him to your " excellent gin-and- 

 water, and must not look for anything remarkable in 

 pippins from a decaying and exhausted apple-tree: 

 As for lecturing you upon the culture of a garden, or 

 haranguing you scientifically at all, I should no more 

 think of it than of seeking horticultural information 

 for myself in the books of those who wrote a century 



* " Not so," writes a friend (" of Oxford he, a very learned 

 clerk ") ; " the very word which precedes your quotation, 

 namely, ' amystide,' means to gulp down a bumper without 

 closing the lips, Lucian also uses the word ' apvyri,' " 



