THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



This soft- voiced echo answering back out of 

 the inmost heart of the whole demesne gives 

 genuineness of sentiment to the entire scheme. 

 To plant a conflagration of color against the back 

 fence and stop there would be worse than melo- 

 dramatic. It would be to close the play with a 

 bang, and even a worthy one-act play does not 

 close with a bang. The back of the lot is not 

 the absolute end of the garden-play. Like the 

 stage-play, the garden-play brings its beholder 

 back at the very last, by a sweet reversion, to 

 the point from which it started. The true gar- 

 den-lover gardens not mainly for the passer-by, 

 but rather for himself and the friends who come 

 to see him. Even when he treads his garden 

 paths alone he is a pleased and welcome visitor to 

 himself, and shows his garden to himself as to a 

 visitor. Hence there is always at last a turning 

 back to the house or to the front entrance, and 

 this is the play's final lines, the last grouping of 

 the players, the relief of all tension and the 

 descent of the curtain. 



One point farther in this direction and we may 

 give our hard- worked analogy a respite. It is 



94 



