A GARDEN DIARY 207 
JULY 7, 1900 
ee CE more the great outside tide of life has 
beaten down the little barricades that one 
erects against it, and has come thundering in 
over them in an avalanche, tossing them to right 
and left, as though they were so many straws in 
its path! This week that has just ended has 
been for millions—for all Europe, for the whole 
world in fact—stamped with the impress of what 
one would fain still hope to be an incredible 
horror. Personally this Pekin nightmare has 
centred itself for me in the fact that E. B. was 
reported to be still there. Recently she was 
known to have been there, and whether she had, 
or had not left seemed at first impossible to 
ascertain. At last, though not until after days 
of suspense, of uncertainty, of growing hope- 
lessness, came the telegram—‘“‘Safe at Hong 
Kong,” and the relief is greater than it is easy, 
without exaggeration, to put into words. 
So great has been that relief that for me it 
has perceptibly altered the whole situation, as | 
