Whiter than the Lily

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The walled garden lay as if stunned under the hot May sunshine. After an indifferent spring, it seemed that Nature was eager to make up for lost time and, since the middle of the month, the weather had been dry and unseasonably hot.

The grass was dotted with daisies and, at a distance from the sheltering group of apple and nut trees in the far corner, three or four fairy rings made a pattern of darker green on the lawn’s brightness. Herbs and flowers grew abundantly in the beds. Predominant among the lilies, pansies, poppies, sage, lavender and thyme were the tall stems of rue, its yellow flowers brought early into bloom by the sun and pushing their way vigorously up to the light. Roses climbed in profusion over the southern and westward walls, their bright pink flowers giving a fragrance to the warm, still air. Wormwood and yarrow, southernwood and bramble competed for space in the hedge beyond the nut trees; in the shade of the hedge, in its own marked-off space, grew mandrake.

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