Volume Ii Part 23 (2/2)
Fleda's mind was crossed by an indistinct vision of peas, asparagus, and sweet corn; she said nothing.
”An indirect remedy is sometimes the very best that can be employed. However, it is always true that the more our eyes are fixed upon the source of light, the less we notice the shadows that things we are pa.s.sing fling across our way.”
Fleda did not know how to talk for a little while; she was too happy. Whatever kept Mr. Carleton from talking, he was silent also. Perhaps it was the understanding of her mood.
”Mr. Carleton,” said Fleda, after a little time, ”did you ever carry out that plan of a rose-garden that you were talking of a long while ago?”
”You remember it?” said he, with a pleased look. ”Yes, that was one of the first things I set about, after I went home ?
but I did not follow the regular fas.h.i.+on of arrangement that one of your friends is so fond of.”
”I should not like that for anything,” said Fleda, ”and least of all for roses.”
”Do you remember the little shrubbery path that opened just in front of the library windows ?leading, at the distance of half a mile, to a long, narrow, winding glen?”
”Perfectly well,” said Fleda, ? ”through the wood of evergreens ? Oh, I remember the glen very well.”
”About half way from the house,” said he, smiling at her eyes, ”a glade opens, which merges at last in the head of the glen ?
I planted my roses there ? the circ.u.mstances of the ground were very happy for disposing them according to my wish.”
”And how far?”
”The roses? ? Oh, all the way, and some distance down the glen. Not a continuous thicket of them,” he added, smiling again ? ”I wished each kind to stand so that its peculiar beauty should be fully relieved and appreciated; and that would have been lost in a crowd.”
”Yes, I know it,” said Fleda; ”one's eye rests upon the chief objects of attraction, and the others are hardly seen ? they do not even serve as foils. And they must show beautifully against that dark background of firs and larches!”
”Yes; and the windings of the ground gave me every sort of situation and exposure. I wanted room, too, for the different effects of ma.s.ses of the same kind growing together, and of fine individuals or groups standing alone, where they could show the full graceful development of their nature.”
”What a pleasure! ? What a beauty it must be!”
”The ground is very happy ? many varieties of soil and exposure were needed for the plants of different habits, and I found or made them all. The rocky beginnings of the glen even furnished me with south walls for the little tea-roses, and the Macartneys, and musk roses; the banksias I kept nearer home.”
”Do you know them all, Mr. Carleton?”
”Not quite,” said he, smiling at her.
”I have seen one banksia ? the Macartney is a name that tells me nothing.”
”They are evergreens ? with large white flowers ? very abundant and late in the season, but they need the shelter of a wall with us.”
”I should think you would say 'with me,' ” said Fleda. ”I cannot conceive that the head-quarters of the rose tribe should be anywhere else.”
”One of the queens of the tribe is there, in the neighbourhood of the Macartneys ? the difficult _rosa sulphurea_ ? it finds itself so well accommodated, that it condescends to play its part to perfection. Do you know that?”
”Not at all.”
”It is one of the most beautiful of all, though not my favourite ? it has large double yellow flowers, shaped like the Provence ? very superb, but as wilful as any queen of them all.”
”Which is your favourite, Mr. Carleton?”
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