The Happy Garden 



effectually hides us, and also keeps away any motor 

 dust that may come our way. 



Where was I ? Oh ! about taking in the wood 

 by the old gardener. I was more honest ; not that 

 I had any rooted objection to his practices ; but 

 I found it simpler to go straight to the landlord 

 and ask him if I might not extend the garden 

 a few yards into the woods on three sides. No 

 objection was raised, and by taking in a little every 

 few years, the estate grew to four acres of garden 

 and four of wood, and, as the wire fence is invisible 

 and the pine woods seem to go on for ever and 

 ever, it is possible to sit on the lawn, or by the 

 tea-house, and feel free of all boundaries and neigh- 

 bours and legal obligations ; and, between seven 

 in the morning and seven in the evening, when the 

 post comes, to forget the world. 



The daily paper is an intrusion at twelve o'clock, 

 but that is just a joke, for journalists manage to 

 make even the truth unconvincing ; and their facts 

 are always much more distorted than the fiction 

 of their feuilleton. 



Jane has been sound asleep in her little mauve 

 room distorting a perfectly peaceful and happy 

 picture of a procession through a green Japanese 

 gate into a representation of an execution. In her 



48 



