FOND DREAMS, AND MISDOUBTS 



So much has already been done in what was, most of it, 

 a mere sodden tangle, impenetrable not only to human 

 beings but even to the light of heaven, that it gives one 

 heart for what may be achieved in the future. Vet never 

 does the Grandmother of Loki feel the uncertainty of life 

 more keenly than when she is in the midst of her garden 

 dreams. Every winter indeed, when the bulbs are planted, 

 she wonders, with a pang, if she will see them come up in 

 the Spring/ how much more does she now ask herself 

 whether the hidden Autumn Garden, or the Italian walk, 

 or the Bowery Orchard, or even the Sunk Fountain, are 

 ever destined to rejoice her. 



Well, after all, she gets an extraordinary amount of 

 pleasure out of the mere mental picture, and who can say 

 if the very uncertainty of all things here below does not 

 add to their zest ? 



207 



