"Well, then the individual," amended Archie. "I suppose he'd
have to pay."
"It doesn't say so," I remarked mildly. "And according to my
small experience--"
"I'm quite sure your meaning is right, Mr. Carter," said Dolly in
an authoritative tone.
"As for the other motto, Archie," said I, "it merely means that a
woman considers all hours wasted which she does not spend in the
society of her husband."
"Oh, come, you don't gammon me," said Archie. "It means that the
sun don't shine unless it's fine, you know."
Archie delivered this remarkable discovery in a tone of great
self satisfaction.
"Oh, you dear old thing!" said Dolly.
"Well, it does you know," said he.
There was a pause. Archie kissed his wife (I am not complaining;
he has, of course, a perfect right to kiss his wife) and strolled
away toward the hothouses.
I lit another cigarette. Then Dolly, pointing to the stem of the
dial, cried:
"Why, here's another inscription--oh, and in English?"
She was right. There was another--carelessly scratched on the
old battered column--nearly effaced, for the characters had been
but lightly marked--and yet not, as I conceived from the tenor of
the words, very old.
"What is it?" asked Dolly, peering over my shoulder, as I bent
down to read the letters, and shading her eyes with her hand.
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