208 A GARDEN DIARY 



suppose it was inevitable that it should do. Never- 

 theless, the tragedy as a tragedy remains, and if 

 anything seems to be deepening daily. The 

 newspapers certainly do nothing to minimise it ; 

 perhaps they would say that it was hardly their 

 province to do so ! Such headings, however, as 

 " The Chinese Cawnpore ! " " Last shots reserved 

 for the women!" "White children carried on 

 spears ! " seem to be rather more than it is their 

 absolute duty to offer to their readers ! As 

 regards hope, no one appears to have any left, so 

 that it seems mere optimism to cherish any. A 

 ray reached us two days ago from our neighbour 

 S. B., who had heard of a reassuring telegram 

 from someone in Sir R. Hart's employment in 

 Pekin. No such gleam, however, seems to have 

 travelled down to the murky depths of our news- 

 papers, so that one can only fear that there must 

 be some mistake. 



It is with a sort of angry helplessness, mixed 

 with an instinctive feeling of self-defence, that 

 one turns from such accumulated, such carefully 

 elaborated horrors, and tries to forget them 

 in whatever little pursuit happens to lie nearest 

 to one's hand. It is not particularly creditable 

 to one's humanity that one should succeed in 

 doing so, and there is no denying that one's 

 attitude is essentially that of a kitten, or other 

 small Unreasonable, which runs after its ball, 

 though disaster may be hovering, or conflagration 



