206 A GARDEN DIARY 



enduring so long as one knew knew as a matter 

 of absolute certainty that they would be now 

 and again pierced by gleams of such celestial 

 potency ? The hard thing, and the thing that 

 for all mortals will always be hardest to bear 

 patiently, is not the uncertainty even so much 

 as the desperate transitoriness of such visita- 

 tions. Almost before we have time to see and 

 to confer with them, our enchanting visitors 

 have spread out their gauzy wings, and have 

 vanished beyond recall. They are gone, but 

 where they are gone to, or when they will next 

 revisit us we have not the faintest notion. Ariel 

 and Titania have disappeared into the abyss, but 

 Caliban and Bottom on the contrary remain per- 

 manently behind, and are continually at our 

 elbows. At this very moment, and while I am 

 still thinking about it, the light is shifting rapidly. 

 The day has grown older ; more crowded. A 

 thousand bloated nothings have sprung up like 

 so many fungi in the path. Shadows, slight, 

 but impenetrable, have gathered over the fore- 

 ground. My own mood too has shifted, and 

 what a while ago seemed so clear has grown 

 fainter and fainter, and seems to be upon the 

 point of disappearing altogether. The good 

 little hour has passed ! 



