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The Keeper of the Bees

interesting time with Carey and his bees. I’ve made up my mind that if the Bee Master wanted me to have the house and garden, I want them as badly as he could possibly want metohavethem. There never was any question of my wanting them. I merely had the feeling that I might be usurping the rights of some other.man. If it happened to be a woman whose rights I was usurping, then, of course——”

“Of course you’d be puddin’-headed enough to get up and get out and leave what rightfully belongs to you!” said Margaret Cameron.

“If she could convince me that she really had a right to the place, naturally, however much I loved it, I’d clear out,” said Jamie. “But clearing out isn’t what I came over here to talk about. Margaret, you’ve made my living room wonderful with a world of flowers. Now, tell me truly, did you put the flowers in my bedroom?”

Margaret Cameron turned toward him a face of frank astonishment.

“No,” she said, “I didn’t. I never want a bedroom cluttered up with flowers. I don’t like to sleep with stronger flower perfume than comes through the windows. I don’t think it’s healthy to lie all night in a surcharged atmosphere. I didn’t put any flowers in your bedroom.”

“All right, then,” said Jamie, “if you didn’t put them there, you are the only one who has keys and access to the room. You can tell me who did.”

“That’s exactly what I cannot,” said Margaret Cameron, “because I haven’t the least notion.”