About the reality of her engrossed interest
in all the stages of progress by which these greenhouses
became crowded museums of the unusual and abnormal
in plant-life, it was impossible to have any suspicion.
And even after they were filled to overflowing, Thorpe noted
with joy that this interest seemed in no wise to flag.
She spent hours every day under the glass, exchanging comments
and theories with her gardeners, and even pulling things
about with her own hands, and other hours she devoted almost
as regularly to supervising the wholesale alterations
that had been begun in the gardens outside. There were
to be new paths, new walls with a southern exposure,
new potting sheds, new forcing pits, new everything--and
in the evenings she often worked late over the maps
and plans she drew for all this. Thorpe's mind found it
difficult to grasp the idea that a lady of such notable
qualities could be entirely satisfied by a career among
seeds and bulbs and composts, but at least time brought
no evidences of a decline in her horticultural zeal.
Who knew? Perhaps it might go on indefinitely.
As for himself, he had got on very well without any special
inclination or hobby. He had not done any of the great
things that a year ago it had seemed to him he would
forthwith do--but his mind was serenely undisturbed
by regrets.
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