OUR SENTIMENTAL GARDEN 

 the nature of the plant which had exhaled the elusive trails 

 of perfume. " Reinette " became the accepted name of the 

 woodland charmer and the hunt for Reinette bushes in 

 the more devious paths of the wood a daily occupation. 



With these expeditions is associated another first ac- 

 quaintance that made a singularly strong impression. 

 There was, at the end of one of those heavenly grassed 

 alleys, a group of brushwood greenery from which the 

 unmistakable fragrance flowed deliciously across the path 

 when the wind blew from a certain direction I should say, 

 now, from the west / for the path led to Garches, a place 

 which, some eight years later, during the siege of Paris, 

 became notorious as the scene of some very ferocious 

 bayonet fighting- Undoubtedly there was a wealth of 

 the desirable "Reinette" amid that underwood. But, to 

 the mild surprise of nurse or mother, or whoever it might 

 be who escorted the child upon his daily constitutional in 

 the wood, nothing could induce him to draw that particular 

 cover. He developed an ingenuity <or rather should it be 

 called a disingenuousness) for pushing investigations or 

 carrying on a game in paths that gave this spot a wide 

 berth. Whenever possible, even, he found some specious 

 argument for avoiding the Garches-ward alley altogether. 

 No one, I believe, ever knew the reason. 

 The fact is that, hard thereby, as if standing sentinel, 

 rose a company of tall, slender Aspens trees that, in a 

 small boy's estimation, did not behave as mere trees 

 should. He had realised this, with a suddenness that 

 first made his heart jump, and then rooted him on the 

 56 



