of our mania?--Oh! what a charming clump of narcissus! They are
as fresh as this spring morning!'

"I assure you, she had made for herself a perfect museum of flowers and
shrubs, which none might see but the sun, and of which the arrangement
had been prompted by the genius of an artist; the most heartless of
landlords must have treated it with respect. The masses of plants,
arranged according to their height, or in single clumps, were really a
joy to the soul. This retired and solitary garden breathed comforting
scents, and suggested none but sweet thoughts and graceful, nay,
voluptuous pictures. On it was set that inscrutable sign-manual, which
our true character stamps on everything, as soon as nothing compels us
to obey the various hypocrisies, necessary as they are, which Society
insists on. I looked alternately at the mass of narcissus and at the
Countess, affecting to be far more in love with the flowers than with
her, to carry out my part.

"'So you are very fond of flowers?' said she.

"'They are,' I replied, 'the only beings that never disappoint our cares
and affection.' And I went on to deliver such a diatribe while comparing
botany and the world, that we ended miles away from the dividing wall,
and the Countess must have supposed me to be a wretched and wounded
sufferer worthy of her pity. However, at the end of half an hour my
neighbor naturally brought me back to the point; for women, when they
are not in love, have all the cold blood of an experienced attorney.

"'If you insist on my leaving the paling,' said I, 'you will learn all
the secrets of gardening that I want to hide; I am seeking to grow a
blue dahlia, a blue rose; I am crazy for blue flowers. Is not blue the
favorite color of superior souls? We are neither of us really at home;
we might as well make a little door of open railings to unite our
gardens.... You, too, are fond of flowers; you will see mine, I shall
see yours. If you receive no visitors at all, I, for my part, have none
but my uncle, the Cure of the White Friars.'

"'No,' said she, 'I will give you the right to come into my garden, my
premises at any hour. Come and welcome; you will always be admitted as a
neighbor with whom I hope to keep on good terms. But I like my solitude
too well to burden it with any loss of independence.'

"'As you please,' said I, and with one leap I was over the paling.

"'Now, of what use would a door be?' said I, from my own domain, turning
round