him of the trials which Aphrodite put upon the
curious Psyche, and he began to tell his children the story of her love
for the unseen bridegroom. He told it very well. It seemed to Philip,
listening with a smile on his lips, that the old tale fitted in with the
scene. The sky was very blue now, and he thought it could not be more
lovely even in Greece. The children with their fair hair and rosy cheeks,
strong, healthy, and vivacious; the delicate form of the hops; the
challenging emerald of the leaves, like a blare of trumpets; the magic of
the green alley, narrowing to a point as you looked down the row, with the
pickers in their sun-bonnets: perhaps there was more of the Greek spirit
there than you could find in the books of professors or in museums. He was
thankful for the beauty of England. He thought of the winding white roads
and the hedgerows, the green meadows with their elm-trees, the delicate
line of the hills and the copses that crowned them, the flatness of the
marshes, and the melancholy of the North Sea. He was very glad that he
felt its loveliness. But presently Athelny grew restless and announced
that he would go and ask how Robert Kemp's mother was. He knew everyone in
the garden and called them all by their Christian names; he knew their
family histories and all that had happened to them from birth. With
harmless vanity he played the fine gentleman among them, and there was a
touch of condescension in his familiarity. Philip would not go with him.
"I'm going to earn my dinner," he said.
"Quite right, my boy," answered Athelny, with a wave of the hand, as he
strolled away. "No work, no dinner."
CXIX
Philip had not a basket of his own, but sat with Sally. Jane thought it
monstrous that he should help her elder sister rather than herself, and he
had to promise to pick for her when Sally's basket was full. Sally was
almost as quick as her mother.
"Won't it hurt your hands for sewing?" asked Philip.
"Oh, no, it wants soft hands. That's why women pick better than men. If
your hands are hard and your fingers all stiff with a lot of rough work
you can't pick near so well."
He liked to see her deft movements, and she watched him too now and then
with that maternal spirit of hers which was so amusing and yet so
charming. He was clumsy at first, and she laughed at him. When she bent
over and showed him how best to deal with a whole line their hands met. He
was surprised to see her blush. He co
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