loth
I saw beneath me the fragrant heap of flowers, and the dear, loving face
that had gazed so tenderly in mine seemed once more to be looking in my
eyes.

I held the last two roses in my hand for a moment or two, hesitating,
but I let them fall at last; and then the tears I had kept back so long
came with a rush, and I sank down on my knees sobbing as if my heart
would break.

It was one of my uncles who laid his hand upon my shoulder and made me
start as he bent over me, and said in a low, chilling voice:

"Get up, my boy; we are going back. Come!--be a man!"

I did get up in a weary, wretched way, and as I did so I looked round
after old Brownsmith, and there he was a little distance off, watching
me, it seemed. Then we went back, my relatives who were there taking
very little notice of me; and I was made the more wretched by hearing
one cousin, whom I had never seen before, say angrily that he did not
approve of that last scene being made--"such an exhibition with those
flowers."

It was about a month after that sad scene that I went over to see old
Brownsmith. I was very young, but my life with my invalid mother had, I
suppose, made me thoughtful; and though I used to sit a great deal at
the window I felt as if I had not the heart to go into the great garden,
where every path and bed would seem to bring up one of the days when
somebody used to be sitting there, watching the flowers and listening to
the birds.

I used to fancy that if I went down any of her favourite walks I should
burst out crying; and I had a horror of doing that, for the knowledge
was beginning to dawn upon me that a great change was coming over my
life, and that I must begin to think of acting like a man.

As I turned in at the gate I saw Shock at the door of one of the lofts
over the big packing-sheds. He had evidently gone up there after some
baskets, and as soon as I saw him I walked quickly in his direction; but
he darted out of sight in the loft; and if I had any idea of scaling the
ladder and going up to him to take him by storm, it was checked at once,
for a half-sieve basket--one of those flat, round affairs in which fruit
is packed--came flying out of the door, and then another and another,
one after the other, at a tremendous rate, quite sufficient to have
knocked me backwards before I was half-way up.

"A brute!" I said angrily to myself. "I'll treat him with contempt;"
and striding away I went down the garden, with t