To this very day, nearly sixty years afterwards, it still
looks just the same, and keeps its old fragrant spicy odour.
Common politeness dictated a brief period of conversation, until
Mrs. Pithers, the housekeeper, should take up her wicker key-
basket and select a key (the second press on the left). From that
inexhaustible treasure-house dates and figs would appear, also
dried apricots and those little discs of crystallised apple-paste
which, impaled upon straws, and coloured green, red and yellow,
were in those days manufactured for the special delectation of
greedy little boys. What a happy woman Mrs. Pithers must have been
with such a prodigal wealth of delicious products always at her
command! It was comforting, too, to converse with Mrs. Pithers,
for though this intrepid woman was alarmed neither by bears,
hunchbacks nor crocodiles, she was terribly frightened by what she
termed "cows," and regulated her daily walks so as to avoid any
portion of the park where cattle were grazing. Here the little boy
experienced a delightful sense of masculine superiority.
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