Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/229



was too infirm now to walk alone; two footmen in grey liveries, with coarse, red, clean-shaven faces, led him hither. Up till now they had accompanied rather than led him, but the doctor had pointed out to them the possibility of a fall, and this had made them be on their guard constantly; they were therefore also constantly anxious and cross.

Only last year he had still been able to come here by himself—now and then accompanied by his doctor—to this garden of varieties which startled the casual observer like the incoherent ramblings of a lunatic’s imagination. It was as if a team of whims had taken the bit between the teeth and come to grief within sight of the onlooker.

There was a clearing in the quietest and most remote part of the park, covered with $213$