CONCLUSION. 357 



the last time alive. He had then been living at 

 Goring for some short time, and this was my 

 first visit to him there. I was pleased to find 

 that his house was far pleasanter than the 

 dreary and bleak cottage which he had rented 

 at Crowborough. It had a view of the 

 sea, a warm southern exposure, and a good 

 and interesting garden : in one corner a quaint 

 little arbour, with a pole and vane, and near 

 the centre a genuine old-fashioned draw-well. 

 Poor fellow ! Painfully, with short breath- 

 ing, and supported on one side by Mrs. 

 Jefferies and on the other by myself, he 

 walked round this enclosure, noticing and 

 drawing our attention to all kinds of queer 

 little natural objects and facts. Between the 

 well and the arbour was a heap of rough, ^^ 

 loose stones, overgrown by various creeping W A* 

 flowers. This was the home of a common 

 snake, discovered there by Harold, and poor 

 Jefferies stood, supported by us, a yard or so 

 away and peered into every little cranny and 

 under every leaf with eyes well used to such a 

 search until some tiny gleam, some minute 

 cold glint of light, betrayed the snake. Weak- 



