120 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



Gardener would say I am rather weak 

 about some things. ' pease everlasting/ 

 has overcome ; and so has the white 

 briony. I had said that this briony 

 should not advance beyond a certain 

 point. And I found myself to-day sur- 

 rounded by the beauty of ten thousand 

 ice-green blossoms, overspreading a low 

 ivy wall, at least twelve feet beyond the 

 bounds I had set. With unnumbered 

 lengths of out-shot tendrils stretching 

 all over it every way in eager quest for 

 the touch of some sympathetic branch, 

 with glossy ivy and blue berberis berries 

 mixing through the flowers and foliage, 

 it is certainly as people say, 'a picture.' 

 Near a little wicket gate at the end of a 

 grass walk, grows a female briony, smaller 

 and more reticent, wreathed about with 

 round green fruit. During a short absence 

 this was written to me * No one has passed 

 through the little green gate since you left, 

 I am sure ; the briony has put out a tiny 

 hand which clasps it so tight.' Totally 

 different and most charming in its way, are 

 the clumps of Alstromeria, whose orange 



