COMMUTER'S WIFE 281 



wet, blooms from July until snow hides it, and I 

 once remember gathering a delicious bunch on a 

 Christmas morning. 



In a nook of this darling bed of mine hides a 

 silvery cut-leaved plant, a mascot that I hope 

 will thrive and soon hold a braver place. This 

 plant is rosemary, the flower of remembrance. I 

 brought this little root from Shottery, "and it is 

 planted here in remembrance of the glory of the 

 literature of the mother tongue and of all true 

 lovers. 



If flowers make a garden, so also do the greens 

 that form their setting, and I now find the wild 

 space beyond the sun garden inseparable from the 

 cultivated in this matter. The madonna lilies now 

 in perfect bloom, when gathered, need delicate 

 maidenhair and lady ferns for company, while holly- 

 hocks set in the great India jars should emerge 

 from a mass of vigorous brakes in order to hide 

 their usual shabbiness of stalk. 



July 1 6. Full moon, and both single and double 

 hollyhocks at height. All day long the garden is 

 a-bloom under full pressure of the sun and frequent 

 showers, and the bright moon so carries day into 

 night that we often stay out until the striking of 

 the magic hour, and even then I linger at my lat- 



