BY ALFRED AUSTIN AUTHOR OF ‘THE GARDEN THAT I LOVE,’ ‘IN VERONICA’S GARDEN,‘ ’HAUNTS OF ANCIENT PEACE,’ AND ‘THE POET’S DIARY’ LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1907 This Edition is issued with the kind consent of Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd....

‘I observe,’ said Lamia, ‘that another of those somewhat numerous prose performances of yours, that are more or less remotely connected with Gardens, and which you were pleased, without any previous consultation with me, to entitle Lamia’s Winter-Quarters , is, like the first of the series, The Garden That I Love , to be issued in an equally luxurious form, and to be illustrated by the attractive talent of Mr. Elgood. But since this project, to which my attention was called by that now universal

‘Where is Lamia?’ The inquiry is one not infrequently made; for, while most of us can vanish without being missed, some favoured individuals there are whose disappearance at once excites a sense of loss; and Lamia is one of these. The question, I need scarcely say, was put by Veronica; since the Poet maintains a fine irresponsible attitude respecting others as well as about himself, and, however anxious I may be to keep sight of Lamia, I am hardly so simple as to betray my desire. But, respondin

‘I wonder,’ said Lamia, ‘who invented the phrase, “the sunny South”?‘ ‘A poet, no doubt,’ I answered, with perhaps a slight touch of malice; ‘one who, in Bacon’s phrase, accommodates the shows of things to the affections of the mind .‘ ‘That is all very well when you are not in immediate contact with the things themselves. But here we have been for forty-eight hours, and we have not seen the sun yet. Tuscany could hardly have behaved worse.’ ‘All of us, even the most prosaic,’ said the Poet, ‘ar

I heard the Poet’s voice in the balcony, followed by the pushing back of heavy persiane , and then: ‘Lamia! Come as quickly as you can; I want to show you what you may never have a chance of seeing again.’ There was no reason why, if there was anything new or wonderful to behold, Lamia and the Poet should have a monopoly of the spectacle; so, arraying myself as rapidly as I could, I emerged onto the balcony just as Lamia, in incomplete but most fascinating attire, did the same. ‘Oh!’ she exclaim