A GARDEN DIARY 101 
FEBRUARY I0, 1900 
HAT resolution about the war and its news- 
papers I still feel to have been the right 
one. Unfortunately, like many excellent resolu- 
tions, it has only one drawback, which is that 
it is impossible to keep to it! The situation has 
grown too strained; it clutches at one like a 
demon; it rides one all day like some waking 
nightmare. In vain I assure myself that the 
proper attitude for all non-combatants is one of 
absolute patience. That it becomes us just now 
to study patience, as we might study one of the 
fine arts; to learn, that is to say, either to go 
about our own concerns, or else to wait till we 
are told—as we might be at the end of an 
operation—“ All over!” “All well!” This, I 
have no doubt, is the proper and patriotic atti- 
tude, only how is it to be attained? or who is 
sufficient for such placidity? It is not so many 
days since I opened my paper at eight o'clock 
in the morning, and the message heliographed 
by Sir George White to Sir Redvers Buller 
