An iron staple clasped the cross-bar, and was driven deep into the gate-post.

But now an eye that had been in the blacksmithing business--an eye which had later received high training as an eye for fastenings--fell upon that staple, and saw at a glance that the wood had shrunk from it, and it had sprung from its hold, though without falling out.

The strange habit asserted itself; he laid his large hand upon the cross-bar; the turf at the base yielded, and the tall gate was drawn partly open.
At that moment, as at the moment whenever he drew or pushed a door or gate, or looked in at a window, he was thinking of one, the image of whose face and form had never left his inner vision since the day it had met him in his life's path and turned him face about from the way of destruction.
The bird ceased.

The cause of the interruption, standing within the opening, saw before him, much obscured by its own numerous shadows, a broad, ill-kept, many-flowered garden, among whose untrimmed rose-trees and tangled vines, and often, also, in its old walks of pounded shell, the coco-grass and crab-grass had spread riotously, and sturdy weeds stood up in bloom.

He stepped in and drew the gate to after him.