Bertram at the
feast, and to bring her down a peg if I can. Now, let's come on."
The ladies left the house and joined the group of holiday-seekers, who
were all going in the direction of the Rectory. When they reached the
festive scene, the grounds were already thronged. Mr. Ingram was very
proud of his gardens and smoothly-kept lawns. He hated to see his velvet
swards trampled on and made bare by the tread of many feet. He disliked
the pet flowers in his greenhouses being pawed and smelt, and his trim
ribbon borders being ruthlessly despoiled. But on the day of the annual
treat he forgot all these prejudices. The lawns, the glass-houses, the
flower-beds, might and would suffer, he cared not. He was giving supreme
pleasure to human flowers, and for two days out of the three hundred and
sixty-five they were free to do as they liked with the vegetable kingdom
over which on every other day he reigned as monarch supreme. Marquees
now dotted the lawns, and one or two brass bands played rather shrill
music. There were tennis-courts and croquet lawns, and fields set aside
for archery. Luxurious seats, with awnings over them, were to be found
at every turn, and as the grass was of the greenest here, the trees of
the shadiest, and the view of the blue harbor the loveliest, the
Rector's place, on the day of the feast, appeared to more than one
enthusiastic inhabitant of Northbury just like fairyland.
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