40 A BOOK ABOUT THE GARDEN. 



desolation which oppressed him, and would, he knew, 

 oppress him that very evening, when, alone and 

 dolorous in his dreary cave " (Oh fie, Mr. Chiswick, 

 Mr. Chiswick ! how can you thus defame your cosy 

 parlour, with its cheerful fire and singing kettle ? 

 How can you thus ignore your horticultural hooks, 

 3 T our cornet-a-piston, upon which I heard you playing 

 but two nights ago, in your divine despair, the 

 melancholy air of " Old Dan Tucker " ?) " where no 

 sound was to be heard save the sorrowful sighing of 

 the wind " (he said nothing about the snoring of his 

 small servant asleep in the contiguous kitchen) " and 

 the dismal drip of the rain " (here Miss Oldacre 

 looked up into the cloudless shining heavens, as if 

 wondering wherever the rain was to come from), " he 

 should sit like patience on a monument, smiling at 

 grief " tbe monument consisting of a very easy chair, 

 and grief being represented by a plump little pipe of 

 Bristol bird's-eye, and a glass of gin-and- water, " hot 

 with." Finally, this unhappy plaintiff, whom you 

 could not have identified with the smiling skater 

 shooting over the lake only half an hour ago as though 

 he had backed himself to catch an express train, 

 after glancing briefly at the delightful privileges of 

 self-destruction, the repose to be found in yellow fever, 

 and the unspeakable consolation of being killed in 

 battle, in cases of severe disappointment, asked Mary 

 Oldacre to be his wife ; and I am quite sure that the 

 bright moon, in all her great experience, never looked 

 upon a happier couple as they came home, hand in 

 hand, and heart in heart, that night, through the 

 silvered grass. Mr. Chiswick returned to his " dreary 



