e muddy.
The rain spears are as sharp as whetted knives. They dart down and down,
edged and shining. Clop-trop! Clop-trop! A carriage grows out of the
mist. Hist, Porter. You can keep on your hat. It is only Her Majesty's
dogs and her parrot. Clop-trop! The Ladies in Waiting, Porter.
Clop-trop! It is Her Majesty. At least, I suppose it is, but the
blinds are drawn.

"In all the years I have served Her Majesty she never before passed the
gate without giving me a smile!"

You're a droll fellow, to expect the Empress to put out her head in the
pouring rain and salute you. She has affairs of her own to think about.

Clang the gate, no need for further waiting, nobody else will be coming
to Malmaison to-night.

White under her veil, drained and shaking, the woman crosses the
antechamber. Empress! Empress! Foolish splendour, perished to dust.
Ashes of roses, ashes of youth. Empress forsooth!

Over the glass domes of the hot-houses drenches the rain. Behind her a
clock ticks--ticks again. The sound knocks upon her thought with the
echoing shudder of hollow vases. She places her hands on her ears, but
the minutes pass, knocking. Tears in Malmaison. And years to come each
knocking by, minute after minute. Years, many years, and tears, and
cold pouring rain.

"I feel as though I had died, and the only sensation I have is that I am
no more."

Rain! Heavy, thudding rain!

V

The roses bloom at Malmaison. And not only roses. Tulips, myrtles,
geraniums, camelias, rhododendrons, dahlias, double hyacinths. All the
year through, under glass, under the sky, flowers bud, expand, die, and
give way to others, always others. From distant countries they have
been brought, and taught to live in the cool temperateness of France.
There is the 'Bonapartea' from Peru; the 'Napoleone Imperiale'; the
'Josephinia Imperatrix', a pearl-white flower, purple-shadowed, the
calix pricked out with crimson points. Malmaison wears its flowers as a
lady wears her gems, flauntingly, assertively. Malmaison decks herself
to hide the hollow within.

The glass-houses grow and grow, and every year fling up hotter
reflections to the sailing sun.

The cost runs into millions, but a woman must have something to console
herself for a broken heart. One can play backgammon and patience, and
then patience and backgammon, and stake gold napoleons on each game won.
Sport truly! It is an unruly spirit which could ask better. With h