1 62 The Real Charlotte. 



but did not altogether please Christopher. " You know," 

 she went on, " I've never stayed in a house like this before. 

 I mean — you're all so different — " 



" I tliink you must explain that remarkable statement," 

 said Christopher, becoming Johnsonian as was his wont 

 when he found himself in a difficulty. " It seems to me 

 we're even depressingly like ordinary human beings." 



" You're different to me," said Francie in a low voice, 

 " and you know it well." 



The tears came to her eyes, and Christopher^ who could 

 not know that this generality covered an aching thought of 

 Hawkins, was smitten with horrified self-questioning as to 

 whether anything he had said or done could have wounded 

 this girl, who was so much more observant and sensitive than 

 he could have believed. 



" I can't let you say things like that," he said clumsily. 

 " If we are different from you, it is so much the worse for 

 us." 



" You're trying to pay me a compliment now to get out 

 of it," said Francie, recovering herself; " isn't that just like 

 a man ? " 



She felt, however, that she had given him pain, and the 

 knowledge seemed to bring him more within her compre- 

 hension. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



There are few things that so stimulate life, both social and 

 vegetable, in a country neighbourhood, as the rivalry that 

 exists, sometimes unconfessed, sometimes bursting into an 

 open flame, among the garden owners of the district. The 

 Brutf garden was a little exalted and removed from such 

 competition, but the superiority had its depressing aspect 

 for Lady Dysart in that it was counted no credit to her to 

 excel her neighbours, although those neighbours took to 

 themselves the highest credit when they succeeded in 

 excelling her. Of all these Mr. Lambert was the one she 

 most feared and respected. He knew as well, if not better 

 than she, the joints in the harness of Doolan the gardener, 

 the weak battalions in his army of bedding-out plants, the 

 failures in the ranks of his roses. Doolan himself, the 



