A GARDEN IN MEATH 



terially directing the footman with the butt end of his whip. 

 Presently he broke into speech : 



"Will you be noticing the carriage, sir?" he remarked, 

 addressing the head of the party. " Her Ladyship's just 

 bought it. I chose it for her meself, so I did. It's a grand 

 contrivance, you can have it the way it is now, and it's 

 real comfortable, isn't it, sir? But sure, you can turn 

 it into an omnibus. And you'd never believe now, 

 how many it would hold. I drove six ladies to a ball 

 in it the other night, and not one of them crushed on 

 me And fine large ladies they were," he observed 

 admiringly. 



" We do wish he would not tell every one that," observed 

 one of the " large ladies " a little later. " Every time he's 

 gone to the station in the new waggonette this summer 

 he's told that story." 



But she was quite good-humoured and amused. Indeed, 

 her largeness was of the beautiful order. It was no 

 wonder the coachman was proud of conveying it un- 

 crushed. 



The gardens where these hostesses dwelt were pleasantly 

 green and flowery. There was the usual high-walled 

 garden. Villino Loki, with its absurd terraces, can never 

 dream of attaining to such an enclosure of antique charm. 

 For if we walled in the Kitchen and Reserve Garden at 

 the foot of our hill we should wall out the moor from 

 below, and obstruct our sweeping vision from above. But 

 my heart yearns to an old walled garden. A place quite 

 apart, with its mingled odours of herb and flower and 

 ripening fruit,- with its perpetual murmur of bees, its 

 tangled walks, its old bushes of Rosemary and Lavender, 



271 



