The whole effect rather suggests the idea that Providence and
Norman Wilkinson have dropped mutual jealousies and collaborated to
produce a background for an open-air Russian Ballet; in point of fact, it
is merely the background to your luncheon party. If there is any kick
left in Gwenda Pottingdon, or whoever your E.O.N. guest of the moment may
be, just mention carelessly that your climbing putella is the only one in
England, since the one at Chatsworth died last winter. There isn't such
a thing as a climbing putella, but Gwenda Pottingdon and her kind don't
usually know one flower from another without prompting."
"Quick," said Elinor, "the address of the Association."
Gwenda Pottingdon did not enjoy her lunch. It was a simple yet elegant
meal, excellently cooked and daintily served, but the piquant sauce of
her own conversation was notably lacking. She had prepared a long
succession of eulogistic comments on the wonders of her town garden, with
its unrivalled effects of horticultural magnificence, and, behold, her
theme was shut in on every side by the luxuriant hedge of Siberian
berberis that formed a glowing background to Elinor's bewildering
fragment of fairyland.
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