THE TURN OF THE YEAR 



venient attack of " conscience "in other words the heavy 

 memory of garden bills, already incurred over the Autumn 

 lists, rose up and barred the way. We felt something like 

 Scrooge when the ghost with the bony finger <horrible vision 

 of our youth) pointed to the tomb. Only, on our tablet 

 what was written was the ghastly total of our bulbous 

 liabilities ! Like Scrooge, we covered our faces with our hands. 

 No wonder the faun took fright and leaped into next year. 



Well, now, another year has come/ and it is passing, 

 taking us upon yet another round of garden pleasures, of 

 old hopes and ambitions renewed with many new delights 

 and new disappointments, as of old/ with also fresh 

 openings on the bright hori- 

 zon. New interests too. Of 

 these, some of the smaller 

 are not the least engrossing. 

 To Villino Loki this year, for ex- 

 ample, has come a new Pekinese. It is 

 a Princess, very small, very sleek / chest- 

 nut-hued, with a face like a pansy. She 

 has got a little jutting under-jaw, an extremely flat nose / 

 and, in moments of excitement, her eyes display an amazing 

 amount of white rim. But they are becoming very beautiful 

 eyes for all that. They were the brightest of " boot- 

 buttons " when she came first. 



Loki was, naturally, very angry. He did his best to kill 

 her / which was ungrateful, as she was really procured, at 

 great cost and difficulty, to be his Imperial Bride ! She, on 

 her side, liked him awfully, and told him so. On her first 

 motor drive down here from London, as she waggled and 



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