The Happy Garden 



And for rough weather : rain does but bring 

 new mystery to the pine-woods, and snow is an 

 added glory. I have seen the pines in a blizzard 

 white and black in halves like the old bisected poster 

 of the "Spider" in "The Silver King," that 

 villain who was swell by day and ruffianly murderer 

 by night. . . . 



In the cherry-walk on the other side of the 

 brier hedge are Jane and Elisabeth, and I hear the 

 severe Fabianish voice declaring that beauty is a 

 snare and happiness a delusion. 



That sort of jargon is intolerable in the cherry- 

 walk : how the trees and the roses must despise 

 humanity when they hear it. Jane and Elisabeth 

 must be brought back into the book for safety. 

 Heaven knows what they have been up to, or what 

 sociological proselytising Elisabeth has wrought 

 among the flowers. . . . Jane is trying to look 

 unhappy. Good gracious ! " Because you are 

 virtuous, are there, then, to be no more cakes and 

 ale ? " 



Elisabeth shows a disposition to argue, and 

 Jane looks scared, for she has a fatal facility in 

 grasping points of view and is inclined to agree 

 amicably with both of us — severally. With the 

 two of us she is torn asunder and her poor little 

 head begins to ache. 



178 



