He entered St. Mary's as Hetty had done, just at sunset. It was a warm
night in June; and, after his tea at the little inn, Dr. Eben sauntered
out listlessly. The sound of merry voices in the Square repelled him;
unlike Hetty, he shrank from strange faces: turning in the direction
where it seemed stillest, he walked slowly towards the woods. He looked
curiously at the little red chapel, and at Father Antoine's cottage,
now literally imbedded in flowers. Then he paused before Hetty's tiny
house. A familiar fragrance arrested him; leaning on the paling he
looked over into the garden, started, and said, under his breath: "How
strange! How strange!" There were long straight beds of lavender and
balm, growing together, as they used to grow in the old garden at
"Gunn's." Both the balm and the lavender were in full blossom; and the
two scents mingled and separated and mingled in the warm air, like the
notes of two instruments unlike, yet in harmony. The strong lemon odor
of the balm, was persistently present like the mastering chords of the
violoncello, and the fine and subtle fragrances from the myriad cells of
the pale lavender floated above and below, now distant, now melting and
disappearing, like a delicate melody. Dr. Eben was borne away from the
present, out of himself. He thrust his hand through the palings, and
gathered a crushed handful of the lavender blossoms: eagerly he inhaled
their perfume. Drawers and chests at "Gunn's" had been thick strewn with
lavender for half a century. All Hetty's clothes--Hetty herself--had
been full of the exquisite fragrance. The sound of quick pattering steps
roused him from his reverie. A bare-footed boy was driving a flock of
goats past. The child stopped and gazed intently at the stranger.
"Child, who lives in this little house?" said Dr. Eben, cautiously
hiding his stolen handful of lavender.
"Tantibba," replied the boy.
"What!" exclaimed the doctor. "I don't understand you. What is the
name?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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