CHAPTER XX 272
This done , he moved with slow step and abstracted air towards a door in the wall bordering the orchard . I , supposing he had done with me , prepared to return to the house ; again , however , I heard him call " Jane !" He had opened feel portal and stood at it , waiting for me .
" Come where there is some freshness , for a few moments ," he said ; " that house is a mere dungeon : don ' t you feel it so ?"
" It seems to me a splendid mansion , sir ."
" The glamour of inexperience is over your eyes ," he answered ; " and you see it through a charmed medium : you cannot discern that the gilding is slime and the silk draperies cobwebs ; that the marble is sordid slate , and the polished woods mere refuse chips and scaly bark . Now HERE " ( he pointed to the leafy enclosure we had entered ) " all is real , sweet , and pure ."
He strayed down a walk edged with box , with apple trees , pear trees , and cherry trees on one side , and a border on the other full of all sorts of old-fashioned flowers , stocks , sweet-williams , primroses , pansies , mingled with southernwood , sweet-briar , and various fragrant herbs . They were fresh now as a succession of April showers and gleams , followed by a lovely spring morning , could make them : the sun was just entering the dappled east , and his light illumined the wreathed and dewy orchard trees and shone down the quiet walks under them .
" Jane , will you have a flower ?" He gathered a half-blown rose , the first on the bush , and offered it to me . " Thank you , sir ."
" Do you like this sunrise , Jane ? That sky with its high and light clouds which are sure to melt away as the day waxes warm -- this placid and balmly atmosphere ?"
" I do , very much ."