Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/230

 frail grasses, that were scorched by the heat at this season. It was planted with trees; some were tall, some undersized, some quite stunted; some were well-matured, some of more recent growth; some were indigenous, while others, of exotic origin, were doing badly in their present conditions. A few were taken out of the hothouses when the weather was fine, and placed by the gardeners in the exact positions in which the aged count liked to see them, so that close to a group of fine, bristling Northern firs, stunted olives, oranges and lemon trees would languish in wooden tubs, sheltered from the north wind, and unfold their large blossoms. Here a mimosa drooped its long sprays over a myrtle bush, there it would mingle its sweetness with that of the rose of Jericho or an Ailanthus: laurels touched Japanese camelias, and next to the proud, funereal obelisk of a cypress, enfolded within its severe shape like a frosty cloud whose outlines no wind will disturb, an aspen responded to the slightest breeze, so that it seemed almost as if its leaves were raising the wind of themselves.

All these trees and shrubs had been brought hither from his travels in distant lands by Christopher des Loges, who had been a great