There came to be an understanding that, whenever he was not absent on a journey, he spent the latter part of the afternoon and the evening with the Quinns.
As the days lengthened the family tea was pushed back to later and later hours to give more time out of doors.
There is something about the very occupation of gardening which is deadening to enthusiasm.

Perhaps a man learns patience by familiarity with growing plants.

Nature is never in a hurry in a garden, and there is no use in trying to hustle a flower, whereas a great impatience is the very life-spirit of enthusiastic patriotism.

There has probably never been a revolutionary gardener, or even a strong Radical who worked with open-air flowers.

Of course, in greenhouses things can be forced, and the spirit of the ardent reformer may find expression in the nurture of premature blooms.