96 THE MAGNOLIA 



into flower. We need scarcely feel ashamed to take some 

 pains in securing better effects tlian are usually attained 

 in arboriculture. 



If you ever visit Orleans on a bicycle, and extricate 

 yourself from the excruciating combination of tram-rails 

 and cobble-stones which render that historic town a petty 

 purgatory, you can run three or four miles north-east on a 

 fair highway to the ChS,teau de la Source. It is a country- 

 house of no particular architectural merit, but is greatly 

 to be admired for its exquisite situation. A high, steep 

 terrace separates the mansion from a lake, crystal clear, 

 source of a tributary of the Loire. CalHng one spring 

 morning — voila des anndes — at the lodge of this chateau, 

 we left our bicycles within the gate and committed our- 

 selves to the custody of a park-keeper of misanthropic 

 aspect. Evidently he had experience of the race of 'Arry 

 and 'Arriet, for, as he marched us in dead silence round 

 the demesne, he kept a sidelong eye upon our movements, 

 as though expecting one of these ' goddams ' to whij) out 

 a knife and deface a smooth-rinded beech with cockney 

 initials. Not a word said he until, at the appointed place, 

 he stopped short and broke silence. ' Miroir du ch&teau ! ' 

 quoth he, extending his hand over the lake, wherein, true 

 enough, the building was reflected with faultless fidelity. 

 The chateau, as I have said, is not imposing, neither does 

 it greatly gain by reduplication; but the scene was re- 

 deemed from commonplace, and given a lasting place in 

 remembrance, by reason of a noble magnolia on the narrow 

 terrace between the house and the lake. It was loaded 

 with snowy blossoms, and gave the miroir its principal 

 charm. 



