"I think so. If the gardener holds the ladder tight against my car, it should fix it pretty firmly, and then I can climb on to the ladder. By the way, you are awfully good to take all this trouble on behalf of an entire stranger. I forgot to make the observation earlier, because, you see, we grow accustomed to finding ourselves uninvited guests. I once dropped into the middle of a Royal Garden Party." "Did you, really? Tell me all about it," said the girl, forgetting her errand of mercy. "Oh, they thought at first I was a Nihilist or a Fenian or something, come to blow up the whole Royal Family. I escaped finally by explaining that the Prince of Wales--who was fortunately absent--had hired me to make the descent by way of affording a little relief to the tedium of the gathering. Incidentally, may I ask into what particular garden I have had the good luck to fall?" "This is Caviare Court, Fullerton, Kent." "_No?_ You don't mean it?" "Why, yes. Why shouldn't I mean it?" "That really is odd. Then your father is Colonel Currie?" "Yes. How ever do you come to know that?" "Because he happens to be my mother's brother. My name is Hampton--Reginald Hampton." There was silence for some time; then-- "You should have told me that before," said the girl, in an aggrieved tone. "I don't see that _we_ are responsible for parental quarrels," responded the other, warmly. "My mother married the wrong man, from Colonel Currie's point of view, and they have sworn eternal enmity. But how should that affect us? By Jove, we're cousins! To think that I have to thank the friskiness of my balloon for getting to know you." Another silence. "I hope father won't come home while you're here," cried the girl, suddenly. "He's never seen you, but you may be like the family, and it is not a likeness one can easily mistake. Have you a peculiar little dent in the middle of an otherwise straight nose?" The query was advanced with an eagerness ludicrously at variance with the difference of their respective situations. It seemed--as Charles Lamb said of humorous letters to distant lands--as though eagerness must grow so stale before it reached the summit of this big pear tree. "Yes, I have," answered Hampton, laughing. "Then your fate is sealed. Father may return at any moment, and you really musn't come down into the garden." "But I'm awfully hungry," said Mr. Hampton, plaintively. "I'll send you up something to eat, as I suggested at first." "I have no string, or rope, or anything I can let down." This was scarcely accurate, but Reginald Hampton saw too many capabilities in the situation, to let it go readily. Finally, he overcame the girl's scruples, and she departed in quest of a ladder.