I think,of course, that child emigration is much
better, but nobody elsedoes, apparently.
Its something cruel, he said, the waythey spring up
when youre not about.
What a beautiful young lady Miss Fleur as grown, to
be sure; sucha colour she ad this morning!
And, rising, he closed the handle of his
shooting-stick.
Hes a great collector, and always on the look-out.
Very good, sir, said the gardener, and walked away. And, with a sudden shrinking
from any more discomforting sounds, herose. Extraordinarilydifficult to upset
anything so vast, intricate, and elastic as anations life. He walked along the
rightside of the narrow square, where he had known turbulence
andtragedy.
Does my father-in-law know your work,
Iwonder?
I wanted her to leave him at the beginning of
everything. There the house was, looking much as it used to, notquite so neat, and a
little more florid.
Something sedative, statue of Vulcan, or somebody
on a horse;thats whats wanted! And here camethe swans, with their grey brood in tow;
handsome birds, going tobed on the island! And now she could not even walk beside
him, who was playing guideto that girl, his wife!
Soames put his lips on the edge of her cheekbone.
An Englishman wasentitled to the smoke of his own kitchen chimney.
The head gardener came by with a spud in his
hand.
What hadnipped that early love affair in the bud
and given him his chance?
But did anybody else love their guns, or want
reminder? The thing is to walk asmuch as you can, in these days of cars, he added.
The doctorsll be findingsomething extra-pink before long.
Jon, she said, suddenly, what are you going to do
to get in atRobin Hill? We ate out principal mealin twenty minutes, and were playing
football ten minutes after. And, as heturned, quickly, dusk softened the trees, the
sky, the river.
And her name would be Gladys or Doris, orwhat not!