The Happy Garden 



the right-hand side of the staircase, the lobby was 

 thrown into the room, the three bottom stairs were 

 turned at right angles, the red plush was removed 

 from the hand-rail, leaden panes were let into the 

 inner front door, the room was painted white — 

 indeed, the whole cottage was painted white — 

 and as soon as possible the conservatories were 

 removed to the farthest away part of the garden, 

 for no self-respecting house can endure a " lean- 

 to." Where they had been, I built out the room, 

 with as much window as possible. That gave me a 

 long and spacious sitting-room hall ; we eat at the 

 new end of it, and use the old as a sitting-room. 

 And then it was ready for colour : blue with a touch 

 of purple, and a cushion or two of old red ; you 

 know the rare red that goes with purple ? 



Brass and copper, and a few sober pictures ; 

 books, seed and bulb catalogues, Gauntlett's fasci- 

 nating list of flowering shrubs ; convex mirrors to 

 give jolly pictures of the room at night ; a Cay ley 

 Robinson, a Lee Hankey ; pieces of sculpture from 

 the shop near the museum at Naples ; some pretty 

 things from Florence ; old pieces of furniture picked 

 up here and there ; old china — it is all blue in this 

 room, and sits around the top of the panelling and 

 on the long window-sills ; Thorwaldsen medallions, 

 bought in Rome by the man's great-aunt in the 



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