THE OPENING DAY FOR ROSES 135 
a fairy with butterfly’s wings would dance and twirl 
her skirts about before stopping to rest under one 
of these great flowers. Such stalks and leaves would 
naturally appear very large to the little fairy, who 
probably would never see the serious black shadow 
in their centres, since the flowers would be upheld 
so high over her head. I can also picture these 
poppies reflected by electric lights in pools of deep 
water. I can think of them with oriental people, 
and see them often in dreams. I continue to mar- 
vel at their beauty, but I do regret their presence 
in the triangle. 
Joseph fairly adores them. He is prouder of 
the oriental poppies than of any other flowers that 
so far have bloomed at the Six Spruces. Their 
bigness and their redness have made a great impres- 
sion on him. He is pleased also that he planted 
them in the long, narrow bed in front of the wall, 
and at the back of the crescent bed. He believes 
his treatment of them to be quite modern, and that 
they give these beds much the same appearance as 
that of Miss Wiseman’s hardy border. But, alas ! 
Miss Wiseman has her oriental poppies behind pink 
peonies, which to me seems most strange. The 
only place I enjoy looking at them at all is in our 
own crescent bed, where they are near the green 
brakes, and near both the blue and the yellow 
irises. How fortunate it is, I have whispered to 
myself, that they are far away from my roses. It 
would be too bad to hurt Joseph’s feelings by let- 
