You would have thought the King was coming. <...> Our newspapers and cross-country letters are delivered by
the rural postman about eleven of the forenoon; and it so happened that on this particular morning I was awaiting, with the
feverish anxiety peculiar to the amateur politician, the result of
an important bye-election, while Lamia, I well knew, was not a
little impatient to learn through her private correspondence how
long she could remain with us, and how best to arrange other
visiting plans when for awhile she had to deprive us of her always welcome society. <...> But, if the fate of an Empire had been
depending on the morning telegrams, I should not have dared
remove the wrapper of the newspaper that had just been put into
my hand. <...> Lamia, with more courage, applied a small paper-cutter
to one of her envelopes; but, severely reproved by a look from
Veronica, she at once desisted.
‘Surely,’ said Veronica, ‘you can read your letters later; and
as for the newspapers,’ she added, turning towards me, ‘you always say there is nothing in them; and even if there were, on this
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occasion I think you might control your curiosity till the afternoon.’
On this occasion! <...> Nothing
less, but certainly nothing more, than the return of the Poet from
a six weeks’ holiday on the other side of the Alps; and his homecoming had imbued Veronica with an engrossing solicitude
which she strove to impart to Lamia and to me, and which accordingly we simulated to the best of our ability. <...> Whatever our
private estimate of the importance of the arrival of this particular
traveller, we had to act as though we also regarded it as an event
of quite regal consequence; so, leaving second-post letters unopened, and the London papers unscanned, we started off obsequiously, basket on arm, to the nearest wood in quest of
primroses.
‘And mind,’ said Veronica, flashing after us a parting injunction, which conveyed to us afresh her profound conviction of
our incapacity, to say nothing of Lamia’s probable frivolity,
‘mind you gather them with long stalks, and do not mix the
coral-tinted windflowers with the white ones. <...> And bring plenty <...>
In_Veronica's_garden.pdf
CONTENTS
April 23rd.....................................................................................7
May 24th. ...................................................................................35
June 29th. ...................................................................................63
June 30th. ...................................................................................71
July 10th.....................................................................................85
October 1st. ................................................................................93
December 18th. ........................................................................103
Christmas Eve. .........................................................................105
December 26th. ........................................................................109
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Стр.3
IN VERONICA’S GARDEN
April 23rd.
You would have thought the King was coming.
Our newspapers and cross-country letters are delivered by
the rural postman about eleven of the forenoon; and it so happened
that on this particular morning I was awaiting, with the
feverish anxiety peculiar to the amateur politician, the result of
an important bye-election, while Lamia, I well knew, was not a
little impatient to learn through her private correspondence how
long she could remain with us, and how best to arrange other
visiting plans when for awhile she had to deprive us of her always
welcome society. But, if the fate of an Empire had been
depending on the morning telegrams, I should not have dared
remove the wrapper of the newspaper that had just been put into
my hand. Lamia, with more courage, applied a small paper-cutter
to one of her envelopes; but, severely reproved by a look from
Veronica, she at once desisted.
‘Surely,’ said Veronica, ‘you can read your letters later; and
as for the newspapers,’ she added, turning towards me, ‘you always
say there is nothing in them; and even if there were, on this
www.elibron.com
7
Стр.5