She had almost gained the corner of the house when a heavy step came crunching through the trees. A gardener appeared before her. He held a wicker tray on which were rolling great, dark red gooseberries, overripe. He moved slowly. “The garden isn’t open today,” he said quietly to the attractive woman, who was poised for retreat. For a moment she was silent with surprise. How should it be public at all? “When is it open?” she asked, quick-witted. “The rector lets visitors in on Fridays and Tuesdays.” She stood still, reflecting. How strange to think of the rector opening his garden to the public! “But everybody will be at church,” she said coaxingly to the man. “There’ll be nobody here, will there?” He moved, and the big gooseberries rolled. “The rector lives at the new rectory,” he said. The two stood still. He did not like to ask her to go. At last she turned to him with a winning smile. “Might I have _one_ peep at the roses?” she coaxed, with pretty wilfulness. “I don’t suppose it would matter,” he said, moving aside: “you won’t stop long——” She went forward, forgetting the gardener in a moment. Her face became strained, her movements eager. Glancing round, she saw all the windows giving on to the lawn were curtainless and dark. The house had a sterile appearance, as if it were still used, but not inhabited. A shadow seemed to go over her. She went across the lawn towards the garden, through an arch of crimson ramblers, a gate of colour. There beyond lay the soft blue sea with the bay, misty with morning, and the farthest headland of black rock jutting dimly out between blue and blue of the sky and water. Her face began to shine, transfigured with pain and joy. At her feet the garden fell steeply, all a confusion of flowers, and away below was the darkness of tree-tops covering the beck. She turned to the garden that shone with sunny flowers around her. She knew the little corner where was the seat beneath the yew tree. Then there was the terrace where a great host of flowers shone, and from this, two paths went down, one at each side of the garden. She closed her sunshade and walked slowly among the many flowers. All round were rose bushes, big banks of roses, then roses hanging and tumbling from pillars, or roses balanced on the standard bushes. By the open earth were many other flowers. If she lifted her head, the sea was upraised beyond, and the Cape.