Authors -- Fiction; Ghosts -- Fiction; Love stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- Veterans -- Fiction
Every morning he awoke with the sun and the birds. Adapting himself with
an instant spiritual content to the fact that he was no longer in France
and would not have to fly, he turned over to take another nap. An hour
or two later, he was up and eating his self-prepared breakfast. The rest
of the day was reading Lutetia; musing on Lutetia; "scything" or
"sickling," as he called it in his letters to Spink, in the garden;
reflecting on Lutetia; exploring the neighborhood on foot; meditating on
Lutetia; reading and rereading the mass of Spink's data on Lutetia;
hosing the garden; making notes on Spink's data on Lutetia and thinking
of his notes on Spink's data on Lutetia. He awoke in the morning with
Lutetia on his mind. He fell asleep at night with Lutetia in his heart.
He had come to realize that Lutetia, the author, was even better than he
had supposed her. His college thesis had described her merely as the
Mrs. Gaskell of New England. Now, mentally, he promoted her to its Jane
Austen. His youth had risen to the lure of her color and fecundity, but
his youngness had not realized how rich she was in humor; how wise; what
a tenderness for people informed her careful, realistic detail. It was a
triumph to find her even better than the flattering dictum of his boyish
judgment.
Exploring Lutetia's domain gave results only second in satisfaction to
exploring Lutetia's mind. It was obvious at his first inspection that
the garden had once stretched contrasting glories of color and perfume.
A careful study from the windows was even more productive than a close
survey. There, definitely, he could trace the remains of flower-plots;
pleached paths; low hedges and lichened rocks. Resurrecting that garden
would be an integral part of the joy of resurrecting Lutetia. By this
time also, he had explored the barn. There, a big roomy lower floor
sustained only part of a broken stairway. The equally roomy upper floor
seemed, from such glimpses as he could get below, to be piled with
rubbish. Some day, he promised himself, he would clean it out. Beyond,
and to the right of the barn, bounded by the stone wall, scrambled a
miniature wilderness. That wilderness evaded every effort of
exploration. Only an axe could clear a trail there. Another day he would
tackle the wilderness. But in the meantime he would devote himself to
garden and lawn; in the meantime also loaf and invite his soul. After
all, that was his main reason for coming to Quinanog. Whenever he
thought of this, he took immediately to the Gloucester hammock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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