XIX 



THE warm weather has come with a burst in this last 

 week of April. We have torn ourselves away from Villino 

 Loki to London pavements. The Floribunda trees are 

 covered with red buds. We expect a glory when we return. 

 Loki's Great Aunt has presented his family with twenty- 

 five shillings worth of 

 purple Aubretia, with 

 which <much to Adam's 

 annoyance) we have de- 

 cided to carpet the blue 

 border. The Blue Border, 

 we think, is under some evil 

 bewitchment. Our late gar- 

 dener assured us that no 

 "human gardener " could 

 find room for another plant. 

 Vet it was the only border 

 in the garden that "came up 

 bald/' if one can use such 

 an expression. Perhaps we 

 had too much initiative and 

 he too little / a combination 

 bound to result in failure sometimes, if 

 it is accompanied on one side by plunging 

 ignorance, and on the other by "slow- 

 ness of intellect, Birdie, my dear. 7/ 



To come back to one's garden in April after ten days of 



131 



