

COMPANION-GARDENERS 1 1 1 



would be nice, the employer thinks, to have some 

 one as a companion to share the same interests 

 and help to make the little garden pretty and gay. 

 The obstinate character and the slow comprehen- 

 sion of Trowell, a jobbing man-gardener, are fast 

 converting the peaceful garden into a scene of 

 perpetual strife and argument. This is distressing 

 to the owner, maybe a past lover of fox-hunting, 

 who, through lack of nerve or diminished means, 

 has been forced to take up gardening in the place 

 of this other and more youthful interest. I well 

 remember one such lady who asked for an inter- 

 view. She was alert, nice-looking, and wore a 

 smart, practical tweed coat and skirt. Her boots, 

 well-made and highly-polished, would alone have 

 stamped her as a hunting woman, had not her 

 delightful ease of manner and quick way of coming 

 to the point in speech also betrayed it. She told 

 me that she had reluctantly been obliged to give 

 up hunting, because she found that instead of 

 joining in the first flight, as formerly, she now 

 experienced a decided feeling of relief if there were 

 a gate through which she could ride and thus miss 

 some of the jumping. In order to avoid seeing the 

 meets of hounds, which only enhanced her regret 

 at not taking part in them, she spent the winter 

 in London, going to her small country place only 

 in summer. She required a friendly young gardener 

 who could watch over plants in her absence, and 

 teach her in the long summer days to care for 

 them. " I want a new interest. Can she give it 

 to me ? " she asked, putting it all in a nutshell. 

 I suggested that we should go and look at my 



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