Don't you love gentle voices, Dombeen ? She
is tall, too. I believe she's only an inch shorter
than you. It's absurd when husbands are immense
and their wives little, isn't it ? "

You see what an imp she co\ild be !

" Honor is writing a description of a visit to
Chamounix," Rose went on. " I don't know
what the Lowcester Literary Society would do if
the Sturgises hadn't come to liven it up."

" We got on very well before they arrived,"
I replied.
" Miss Sturgis was in the garden," Rose con-
tinued. " She's wonderful with flowers, they
say. If she just put a walkin#stick into the ground
it would grow. I expect that you and she together
would have the most stunning garden in the
world. And she's not really old, not more than
thirty-eight. Don't you think that married people
should be nearly of an age ? Some day, when I
have enough courage, I shall ask Honor — she's
the easiest, I think — why tliey've never married.
104 ROSE AND ROSE

With all their money, too! But Quaker girls
often don't, I believe. It's funny, because I
should think they'd make wonderful wives, so
placid and sensible, don't you know. What do
you think, Dombeen ? "

" I'm sick of the whole subject," I rephed.
