dear little things." And what a victory this is, to be ranked next the
rose even by one person who loves her garden. Think of the wonderful
beauty triumphed over--the lilies, the irises, the carnations, the
violets, the frail and delicate poppies, the magnificent larkspurs, the
burning nasturtiums, the fierce marigolds, the smooth, cool pansies. I
have a bed at this moment in the full glory of all these things, a
little chosen plot of fertile land, about fifteen yards long and of
irregular breadth, shutting in at its broadest the east end of the walk
along the south front of the house, and sloping away at the back down to
a moist, low bit by the side of a very tiny stream, or rather thread of
trickling water, where, in the dampest corner, shining in the sun, but
with their feet kept cool and wet, is a colony of Japanese irises, and
next to them higher on the slope Madonna lilies, so chaste in looks and
so voluptuous in smell, and then a group of hollyhocks in tenderest
shades of pink, and lemon, and white, and right and left of these white
marguerites and evening primroses and that most exquisite of poppies
called Shirley, and a little on one side a group of metallic blue
delphiniums beside a towering white lupin, and in and out and everywhere
mignonette, and stocks, and pinks, and a dozen other smaller but not
less lovely plants. I wish I were a poet, that I might properly describe
the beauty of this bit as it sparkles this afternoon in the sunshine
after rain; but of all the charming, delicate, scented groups it
contains, none to my mind is so lovely as the group of sweet-peas in its
north-west corner. There is something so utterly gentle and tender about
sweet-peas, something so endearing in their clinging, winding, yielding
growth; and then the long straight stalk, and the perfect little winged
flower at the top, with its soft, pearly texture and wonderful range and
combination of colours--all of them pure, all of them satisfying, not an
ugly one, or even a less beautiful one among them. And in the house,
next to a china bowl of roses, there is no arrangement of flowers so