The Door in the Wall and Other Stories | Page 5

desiring
the green door.
Then, he said, he had a gust of emotion. He made a run for it, lest
hesitation should grip him again, he went plump with outstretched hand
through the green door and let it slam behind him. And so, in a trice, he
came into the garden that has haunted all his life.
It was very difficult for Wallace to give me his full sense of that garden
into which he came.
There was something in the very air of it that exhilarated, that gave one
a sense of lightness and good happening and well being; there was
something in the sight of it that made all its colour clean and perfect
and subtly luminous. In the instant of coming into it one was
exquisitely glad--as only in rare moments and when one is young and
joyful one can be glad in this world. And everything was beautiful
there . . . . .
Wallace mused before he went on telling me. "You see," he said, with
the doubtful inflection of a man who pauses at incredible things, "there
were two great panthers there . . . Yes, spotted panthers. And I was not
afraid. There was a long wide path with marble-edged flower borders
on either side, and these two huge velvety beasts were playing there
with a ball. One looked up and came towards me, a little curious as it
seemed. It came right up to me, rubbed its soft round ear very gently
against the small hand I held out and purred. It was, I tell you, an
enchanted garden. I know. And the size? Oh! it stretched far and wide,
this way and that. I believe there were hills far away. Heaven knows
where West Kensington had suddenly got to. And somehow it was just
like coming home.

"You know, in the very moment the door swung to behind me, I forgot
the road with its fallen chestnut leaves, its cabs and tradesmen's carts, I
forgot the sort of gravitational pull back to the discipline and obedience
of home, I forgot all hesitations and fear, forgot discretion, forgot all
the intimate realities of this life. I became in a moment a very glad and
wonder-happy little boy--in another world. It was a world with a
different quality, a warmer, more penetrating and mellower light, with a
faint clear gladness in its air, and wisps of sun-touched cloud in the
blueness of its sky. And before me ran this long wide path, invitingly,
with weedless beds on either side, rich with untended flowers, and
these two great panthers. I put my little hands fearlessly on their soft
fur, and caressed their round ears and the sensitive corners under their
ears, and played with them, and it was as though they welcomed me
home. There was a keen sense of home-coming in my mind, and when
presently a tall, fair girl appeared in the pathway and came to meet me,
smiling, and said 'Well?' to me, and lifted me, and kissed me, and put
me down, and led me by the hand, there was no amazement, but only
an impression of delightful rightness, of being reminded of happy
things that had in some strange way been overlooked. There were broad
steps, I remember, that came into view between spikes of delphinium,
and up these we went to a great avenue between very old and shady
dark trees. All down this avenue, you know, between the red chapped
stems, were marble seats of honour and statuary, and very tame and
friendly white doves . . . . .
"And along this avenue my girl-friend led me, looking down--I recall
the pleasant lines, the finely-modelled chin of her sweet kind
face--asking me questions in a soft, agreeable voice, and telling me
things, pleasant things I know, though what they were I was never able
to recall . . . And presently a little Capuchin monkey, very clean, with a
fur of ruddy brown and kindly hazel eyes, came down a tree to us and
ran beside me, looking up at me and grinning, and presently leapt to my
shoulder. So we went on our way in great happiness . . . ."
He paused.
"Go on," I said.
"I remember little things. We passed an old man musing among laurels,
I remember, and a place gay with paroquets, and came through a broad
shaded colonnade to a spacious cool palace, full of pleasant fountains,

full of beautiful things, full of the quality and promise of heart's desire.
And there were many things and many people, some that still seem to
stand out clearly and some that are a little vague, but all these people
were beautiful and kind. In some way--I don't know how--it was
conveyed to me