But on the question of getting start of the sun on the day's business, and clearing her conscience of the necessary sum of meals and the consequent 'washing up' as soon as possible, so that the family might be well in bed at nine, Mrs.Jerome _was_ susceptible; and the present lingering pace of things, united with Mr.Jerome's unaccountable obliviousness, was not to be borne any longer.
So she rang the bell for Sally.
'Goodness me, Sally! go into the garden an' see after your master.

Tell him it's goin' on for six, an' Mr.Tryan 'ull niver think o' comin' now, an' it's time we got tea over.

An' he's lettin' Lizzie stain her frock, I expect, among them strawberry beds.

Mek her come in this minute.' No wonder Mr.Jerome was tempted to linger in the garden, for though the house was pretty and well deserved its name--'the White House', the tall damask roses that clustered over the porch being thrown into relief by rough stucco of the most brilliant white, yet the garden and orchards were Mr.Jerome's glory, as well they might be; and there was nothing in which he had a more innocent pride--peace to a good man's memory! all his pride was innocent--than in conducting a hitherto uninitiated visitor over his grounds, and making him in some degree aware of the incomparable advantages possessed by the inhabitants of the White House in the matter of red-streaked apples, russets, northern greens (excellent for baking), swan-egg pears, and early vegetables, to say nothing of flowering 'srubs,' pink hawthorns, lavender bushes more than ever Mrs.Jerome could use, and, in short, a superabundance of everything that a person retired from business could desire to possess himself or to share with his friends.

The garden was one of those old-fashioned paradises which hardly exist any longer except as memories of our childhood: no finical separation between flower and kitchen garden there; no monotony of enjoyment for one sense to the exclusion of another; but a charming paradisiacal mingling of all that was pleasant to the eyes and good for food.