THEIR GARDEN VACATION 61 



" I looked at Bart, he nodded back approvingly, so 

 I slipped out, first to see that the Infant was sleeping 

 properly, head up, and not down under the clothes, as 

 I had once found her, and then to walk to and fro 

 under the budding stars for inspiration, leaving the 

 pair to talk the men's talk that is so good and nourish- 

 ing for a married man like Bart, no matter how much 

 he cares for the Infant and me. 



" Jumbled up as the garden is, the spring twilight 

 veils all deficiencies and releases persuasive odours 

 from every corner, while the knoll, with its gnarled 

 trees outlined against the sky, appealed to me as 

 never before, a thing desirable and to be restored and 

 preserved even at a cost rather than obliterated. 



" ' Oh, Mrs. Evan, I wish I could tell you how The 

 Man's plan touches me and seems made for me es- 

 pecially this spring. I seem fairly to have a passion 

 for home and the bit of earth about and sky above it 

 that is all our own. And unlike other times when I 

 loved to have my friends come and visit me, and share 

 and return the hospitality of neighbours, I want to be 

 alone with myself and Bart, to spend long days under 

 the sky and trees and have nothing come between our 

 real selves and God, not even the ticking and dictation 

 of a clock ! There is so much that I want to tell my 



