GARDENS AND GOSSIPS 
in the silence of the garden’s presence, and carry a mes¬ 
sage quite different from what they bear when upon 
every-day errands. If he murmurs that he has waited 
an eternity for this special moment of time, the phrase 
conveys a meaning not apparently inherent in the sim¬ 
ple words themselves; he might address precisely the 
same remark to his office boy, for instance, and there 
would be no stirring of divinity in the circumambient 
air. The Chinese exemplify this peculiar quality in 
speech more clearly than the rest of the world, for they 
can say the same thing and give it any of half a dozen 
or half a hundred interpretations, according to intona¬ 
tion and inflection. Every lover is Chinese enough to 
be able to talk thus to his beloved in a language of his 
own, no matter how ordinary the words he uses. 
So it is that the gossip of a pair of lovers will not 
bear repeating, even should it be overheard. It is the 
most wonderful of all the intimate talks that belong 
within garden walls, but it is practically unintelligible 
to every one else, as it is also apt to be entirely confined 
to the two who are talking, having little or no relation 
to any other human being or event, even when it wan¬ 
ders into the future and predicts the most exquisite 
miracles. However, though we cannot understand 
these whispers and the soft laughter that proceeds 
from the leafy arbor when lovers occupy the old bench, 
we ought none the less to be content that such agree¬ 
able sounds do occasionally proceed from it, without 
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