OLD, UNHAPPY, FAR-OFF THINGS I found my godmother watering her rose trees on the eastward side of the house from which the sun had now departed.

The grassy terraces before the house smelt deliciously, for a water-sprinkler in the grass sent out fine spray like a fountain.

It was very hot weather, and I had walked across; it had been cool enough in the shelter of the wood but the roads had been blinding hot.
"Sit down, Bawn," she said, coming towards me, having left her hose to run at the foot of a rose tree.

"See how busy I am! Of course, a gardener's boy would do it but I love to give drink to the thirsty." She was wearing a cool muslin dress transparent at the neck.

Round her throat she had a slender chain with a locket to it.