XIV 

 FRAGRANT FLOWERS AND LEAVES 



(Mary Penrose to Barbara Campbell) 

 Woodridge, August 26. The heliotrope is in the 

 perfection of bloom and seems to draw perfume from 

 the intense heat of the August days only to release it 

 again as the sun sets, while as long as daylight lasts 

 butterflies of all sizes, shapes, and colours are flutter- 

 ing about the flowers until the bed is like the transfor- 

 mation scene of a veritable dance of fairies ! 



Possibly you did not know that I have a heliotrope 

 bed planted at the very last moment. I had never 

 before seen a great mass of heliotrope growing all 

 by itself until I visited your garden, and ever since 

 I have wondered why more people have not discov- 

 ered it. I think that I wrote you anent hens that 

 the ancient fowl-house of the place had been at the 

 point where there was a gap in the old wall below the 

 knoll, and that the wind swept up through it from 

 the river, across the Opal Farm meadows, and into 

 the windows of the dining room ? The most impossible 

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