In Lilac Tide 
151 
“ Who is he ? ” said my older companions. “ Oh, I 
didn’t know he had to be somebody,” I answered in 
surprise, to be met by derisive laughter at my satis- 
faction with a lover in general and not in particular. 
It was a matter of Lilac-luck-etiquette that the 
Persian Lilacs and Peonies in Garden of the Kimball Homestead, 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 
lover’s name should be pronounced mentally before 
the petal was swallowed. 
In the West Indies the Lilac is a flower of mys- 
terious power ; its perfume keeps away evil spirits, 
ghosts, banshees. If it grows not in the dooryard, 
its protecting branches are hung over the doorway. 
I think of this when I see it shading the door of 
happy homes in New England. 
In our old front yards we had only the common 
