264 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



Iden, a farmer ; her mother, bom a Flamma ; Amadis 

 Iden, ' of the same stock of Idens, yet no relations,' aged 

 twenty-one ; Alere Flamma, aged forty-nine ; old Iden, 

 Amaryllis' grandfather ; and several others — farm people, 

 a squire's son. . . . They are not the people who lived 

 at Coate Farm, but are drawn from them : Amaryllis, 

 from Jefferies' sister, much younger than himself ; the 

 Idens from his father and mother ; Grandfather Iden from 

 John Jefferies, Richard's grandfather, who kept the 

 baker's shop ; Alere Flamma from Fred Gyde, Mrs. 

 Jefferies' brother, engraver and printer ; Amadis Iden 

 perhaps from Jefferies himself, but partly from John 

 Luckett Jefferies, his father's brother, draughtsman and 

 musician, who died young. 



The main part of the framework also is taken from 

 Coate and the Jefferies family. Iden is an original, 

 thoughtful, unbusiness-like man whose farm is going to 

 the bad ; his wife, soured by poverty, but still generous, 

 is at odds with him. Amaryllis could draw, if only she 

 could keep her fingers warm in the cold attic, and she is 

 a favourite with the baker, her grandfather, from whom 

 her father is estranged ; but, disliking the old man, she 

 will make none of the concessions that might have helped 

 to a reconciliation on the day of the fair ; she is proud, 

 and she has a sweetheart, the sickly Amadis. The end 

 of the story leaves her with him happy : 



' In the fitness of things Amaryllis ought not to have 

 been sitting there like this, with Amadis lost in the sweet 

 summer dream of love. 



' She ought to have loved and married a Launcelot du 

 Lake, a hero of the mighty arm, only with the income of 

 Sir Gorgius Midas : that is the proper thing. 



' But the fitness of things never comes to pass — every- 

 thing happens in the Turkish manner. 



' Here was Amaryllis, very strong and fuU of life, very, 

 very young and inexperienced, very poor and without the 

 least expectation whatever (for who could reconcile the 

 old and the older Iden ?), the daughter of poor and 



