There was a high fence of woven wire around the grove; through scented vistas, spotted with sunshine, fruit and blossoms hung together amid tender foliage of glossy green; palms and palmettos stood with broad drooping fronds here and there among the citrus trees, and the brown woody litter which covered the ground was all starred with fallen flowers. The gate was open, and as Hamil stepped in he met a well-built, active man in white flannels coming out; and both halted abruptly. "I am looking for Mr. Cardross," said the younger man. "I am Mr. Cardross." Hamil nodded. "I mean that I am looking for Mr. Cardross, senior--" "I am Mr. Cardross, senior." Hamil gazed at this active gentleman who could scarcely be the father of married children; and yet, as he looked, the crisp, thick hair, the clear sun-bronzed skin which had misled him might after all belong to that type of young-old men less common in America than in England. And Hamil also realised that his hair was silvered, not blond, and that neither the hands nor the eyes of this man were the hands and eyes of youth. "I am Garret Hamil," he said. "I recognise you perfectly. I supposed you older--until my daughter showed me your picture in the _News_ two weeks ago!" "I supposed _you_ older--until this minute." "I _am_!" Looking squarely into each other's faces they laughed and shook hands. "When did you come, Mr. Hamil?" "Last night from Nassau." "Where are you stopping?" Hamil told him. "Your rooms are ready here. It's very good of you to come to see me at once--" "It's very good of you to want me--" "Want you, man alive! Of course I want you! I'm all on edge over this landscape scheme; I've done nothing since we arrived from the North but ride over and over the place--and I've not half covered it yet. That's the way we'll begin work, isn't it? Knock about together and get a general idea of the country; isn't that the best way?" "Yes, certainly--" "I thought so. The way to learn a country is to ride over it, fish over it, shoot over it, sail around it, camp in it--that's my notion of thoroughly understanding a region. If you're going to improve it you've got to care something about it--begin to like it--find pleasure in it, understand it. Isn't that true, Mr. Hamil?" "Yes--in a measure--" "Of course it's true," repeated Cardross with his quick engaging laugh; "if a man doesn't care for a thing he's not fitted to alter or modify it. I've often thought that those old French landscape men must have dearly loved the country they made so beautiful--loved it intelligently--for they left so much wild beauty edging the formality of their creations. Do you happen to remember the Chasse at Versailles? And that's what I want here! You don't mind my instructing you in your own profession, do you?" They both laughed again, apparently qualified to understand one another.