The lawns, the glass-houses, the flower-beds, might and would suffer, he cared not.

He was giving supreme pleasure to human flowers, and for two days out of the three hundred and sixty-five they were free to do as they liked with the vegetable kingdom over which on every other day he reigned as monarch supreme.

Marquees now dotted the lawns, and one or two brass bands played rather shrill music.

There were tennis-courts and croquet lawns, and fields set aside for archery.

Luxurious seats, with awnings over them, were to be found at every turn, and as the grass was of the greenest here, the trees of the shadiest, and the view of the blue harbor the loveliest, the Rector's place, on the day of the feast, appeared to more than one enthusiastic inhabitant of Northbury just like fairyland.
Matty Bell thought so, as, accompanied by her sisters and mother she stepped into the enchanted ground.