256
XXIX. In the Church Porch 260
XXX. A Question of Importance 277
XXXI. Midnight Reflections 284
XXXII. Sunlight and Happiness 290
XXXIII. Trix Seeks Advice 294
XXXIV. An Amazing Suggestion 302
XXXV. Trix Triumphant 312
XXXVI. An Old Man Tells his Story 319
XXXVII. The Importance of Trifles 330
XXXVIII. A Footstep on the Path 334
XXXIX. On the Old Foundation 341
Epilogue 347

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ANTONY GRAY,--GARDENER

PROLOGUE

March had come in like a lion, raging, turbulent. Throughout the day the
wind had torn spitefully at the yet bare branches of the great elms in
the park; it had rushed in insensate fury round the walls of the big grey
house; it had driven the rain lashing against the windows. It had sent
the few remaining leaves of the old year scudding up the drive; it had
littered the lawns with fragments of broken twigs; it had beaten yellow
and purple crocuses prostrate to the brown earth.

Against the distant rocky coast the sea had boomed like the muffled
thunder of guns; it had flung itself upon the beach, dragging the stones
back with it in each receding wave, their grinding adding to the crash of
the waters. Nature had been in her wildest mood, a thing of mad fury.

With sundown a calm had fallen. The wind, tired of its onslaught, had
sunk suddenly to rest. Only the sea beat and moaned sullenly against the
cliffs, as if unwilling to subdue its anger. Yet, for all that, a note of
fatigue had entered its voice.

* * * * *

An old man was sitting in the library of the big grey house. A shaded
reading lamp stood on a small table near his elbow. The light was thrown
upon an open book lying near it, and on the carved arms of the oak chair
in which the man was sitting. It shone clearly on his bloodless old
hands, on his parchment-like face, and white hair. A log fire was burning
in a great open hearth on his right. For the rest, the room was a place
of shadows, deepening to gloom in the distant corners, a gloom emphasized
by the one small circle of brilliant light, and the red glow of the fire.
Book-cases reached from floor to ceiling the whole length of two walls,
and between the three thickly curtained windows of the third. In the
fourth wall wer