The lawn terraces were green, broken only by plots of spring flowers; the walks were walled in box and privet; the house, of the pillared colonial type, crowned a series of terraces.

A long pergola, with pillars topped by red urns, curved gradually through the garden toward the mansion.

Armitage followed a side road along the brick partition wall and contemplated the inner landscape.

The sharp snap of a gardener's shears far up the slope was the only sound that reached him.

It was a charming place, and he yielded to a temptation to explore it.