Edward F Benson

The Angel of Pain Edward F Benson

HE garden lay dozing in the summer sun, a sun, too, that was really hot and luminous, worthyof mid-June, and Philip Home had paid his acknowledgments to its power by twice moving his chairinto the shifting shade of the house, which stood with blinds drawn down, as if blinking in thebrightness. Somewhere on the lawn below him, but hidden by the flower-beds of the terraced walk, a mowing-machine was making its clicking journeys to and fro, and the sound of it seemed to him tobe extraordinarily consonant to the still heat of the afternoon. Entirely in character also with the daywas the light hot wind that stirred fitfully among the garden beds as if it had gone to sleep there, andnow and then turned over and made the flowers rustle and sigh. Huge Oriental poppies droopedtheir scarlet heads, late wall-flowers still sent forth their hot, homely odour, peonies blazed andflaunted, purple irises rivalled in their fading glories the budding stars of clematis that swarmed upthe stone vases on the terrace, golden rain showered from the laburnums, lilacs stood thick infragrant clumps and clusters. Canterbury bells raised spires of dry, crinkly blue, and forget-menots-nearly over-made a dim blue border to the glorious carpet of the beds. For the warmweather this year had come late but determinedly, spring flowers still lingered, and the later blossomsof early summer had been forced into premature appearance. This fact occupied Philip at thismoment quite enormously. What would the garden be like in July? There must come a breaksomewhere, when the precious summer flowers were over, and before the autumn ones began