On the contrary, the words conveyed in too literal a sense the feeling that haunted all that conversation. Each

THE MAN WHOM THE TREES LOVED 25

one in his own way realised—with beauty, with wonder, with alarm—that the talk had somehow brought the whole vegetable kingdom nearer to that of man. Some link had been established between the two. It was not wise, with that great Forest listening at their very doors, to speak so plainly. The Forest edged up closer while they did so.

And Mrs. Bittacy, anxious to interrupt the horrid spell, broke suddenly in upon it with a matter-of-fact suggestion. She did not like her husband's prolonged silence, stillness. He seemed so negative—so changed.

' David,' she said, raising her voice, * I think you're feeling the dampness. It's grown chilly. The fever comes so suddenly, you know, and it might be wise to take the tincture. I'll go and get it, dear, at once. It's better.' And before he could object she had left the room to bring the homoeopathic dose that she believed in, and that, to please her, he swallowed by the tumbler-full from week to week.

And the moment the door closed behind her, Sanderson began again, though now in quite a different tone. Mr. Bittacy sat up in his chair. The two men obviously resumed the conversation—the real conversation interrupted beneath the cedar—and left aside the sham one which was so much dust merely thrown in the old lady's eyes.

* Trees love you, that's the fact,' he said earnestly. ' Your service to them all these years abroad has made them know you.'

' Know me ?'

' Made them, yes,' —he paused a moment, then added,— 'made them aware of your presence ; aware of a force outside themselves that deliberately seeks their welfare, don't you see ?'

* By Jove, Sanderson— !' This put into plain language actual sensations he had felt, yet had never dared to phrase in words before. ' They get into touch with me, as it were ? ' he ventured, laughing at his own sentence, yet laughing only with his lips.

' Exactly,' was the quick, emphatic reply. ' They seek to blend with something they feel instinctively to be good for them, helpful to their essential beings, encouraging to their best expression—their life.'

' Good Lord, Sir ! ' Bittacy heard himself saying, ' but you're putting my own thoughts into words. D'you know, I've felt something like that for years. As though—' he looked round to make sure his wife was not there, then finished the sentence—' as though the trees were after me !'

'" Amalgamate " seems the best word, perhaps,' said Sanderson slowly. * They would draw you to themselves. Good forces, you see, always seek to merge ; evil to separate ; that's why Good in the end must always win the day—everywhere. The accumulation in the long run becomes overwhelming. Evil tends to separation, dissolution, death. The comradeship of trees, their instinct to run together, is a vital symbol. Trees in a mass are good ; alone, you may take it generally, are—well, dangerous. Look at a monkey-puzzler, or better still, a holly. Look at it, watch it, understand it. Did you ever see more plainly an evil thought made visible ? They're wicked. Beautiful too, oh yes! There's a strange, miscalculated beauty often in evil '

* That cedar, then ?'

* Not evil, no; but alien, rather.