Old Rosa, the cook, Nancy, the waiting-maid, and Methuselah,
the ancient gardener, were all the house-servants that remained.
So they lived in a very quiet and frugal way; and Miss Matilda's
activities, not being entirely engrossed with family cares,
found employment in the nurture of flowers and pets.
The grounds in front of the old-fashioned mansion had been laid out
originally in very elaborate style; and, though of late years they had been
greatly neglected, they still retained traces of their former splendor.
The rose-vines on the inside of the enclosure had grown over the low,
brick wall, to meet and mingle with the trees and bushes outside,
till together they formed a solid and luxuriant mass of verdure.
White and crimson roses shone amid the dark, glossy foliage
of the mountain-laurel, which held up with sturdy stem its own
rich clusters of fluted cups, that seemed to assert equality with
the queen of flowers, and would not be eclipsed by the fragrant
loveliness of their beautiful dependents. The borders of box,
which had once been trimmed and trained into fanciful points and
tufts and convolutions of verdure, had grown into misshapen clumps;
and the white, pebbly walks no longer sparkled in the sunlight.
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