DESSALINES' GARDEN PARTY
thing, known to those thoroughly familiar with a vicinity, that there are certain spots of this character which will carry straight through the year a small local climate quite distinct from the surrounding country.
"Irasshai," for the place was named after the Japanese "come in," was one of these spots; whether it was the sheltered river bottom or, as Guijon claimed, something in the soil, it was the earliest and latest place to find wild flowers, and the former tenant had succeeded in growing there, live oaks, mimosa, crape myrtle, and others which it was necessary to protect in winter.
The site of the cottage was several feet above the water; a broad veranda, inclosed by jalousies, swept the southeast corner; Japanese ivy overgrew the greater part of the cottage; a fence of woven bamboo formed a miniature compound. On the edge of the stream a pavilion built on spiles sheltered the boats, while the upper story furnished a little pagoda where it was the custom to have tea served. Beds of purple iris were planted along the banks; masses of hydrangeas, blue and white, seemed to grow in wild profusion about the pagoda; everywhere were flowers.
One entered this oriental fairyland beneath a huge red-lacquered torii; stone lanterns stood on either side, and in one corner of the garden there was a tiny shrine, the sand upon the altar bristling with joss sticks.
Virginia had visited the cottage before, but never at this season of the year. The party from Fenwick Towers included the Misses O'Connor, Irish girls, schoolmates of Virginia. They had come in the drag, but were obliged, owing to the low-growing boughs, to leave it at the beginning of the turf road, a distance of five hundred
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