More Than Meets the Eye Read Online Free PDF

Hartley completing his mowing of the area they called the Wilderness, where visitors were encouraged to picnic. As always when the head gardener left it ready for occupation, the area looked far too trim and well cared for to be called a wilderness. That term came from the man who had initiated and developed this great garden, who regarded any area not crammed with plants, preferably new and interesting, as a wilderness, waiting to be tamed and colonized with new horticultural introductions.
    He was a pioneer with vision, imagination and energy, the original owner. He had also amazed his gardeners by his seemingly unlimited funds. But he had also had the single-minded, blinkered vision of the pioneer, with its refusal even to consider other points of view than his own. Not for the first time, Dennis admitted to himself with a rueful grin that the quiet American with the will of steel must have been a very irritating man at times. No wonder his mother had threatened to cut him off from the family riches.
    Dennis asked Jim Hartley how the latest children’s activity sheets for the garden had gone down with Sam and Oliver. They had taken to using those two boisterous boys as guinea pigs for their efforts to make Westbourne lively and interesting for youngsters, for whom gardens had no obvious and immediate interest. ‘Not bad,’ said Jim, with the grin which came automatically when he thought of Sam and Oliver. ‘Some of the things they were supposed to discover were a bit difficult for a six-year-old, but Olly was all the more pleased when he did get there. I’ve already got three or four suggestions for when we reprint at the end of the season.’
    â€˜I’ll need to chat to you about the apprentices in the next week or two.’
    â€˜They’re all doing quite well. No slackers and all willing and able to learn.’
    Dennis suspected the young men wouldn’t dare to be anything else, in the face of Hartley’s own enthusiasm and commitment. He allowed himself a rueful smile. ‘That’s good to hear, Jim, but it gives us a problem. It looks as if we’ll be able to take one of them on to the permanent staff at the end of the season, but no more than one. National Trust finances won’t run to it.’
    They went through the ritual of complaint about the unfairness of life, about the success of Westbourne being used to shore up other, less visited properties, about unseen moguls who expected you to maintain high standards with thinly spread resources. Hartley eventually said, ‘We develop more and more each year here. They can’t expect us to extend the acres under cultivation and maintain our standards without the staff to do it.’
    â€˜And they’ll say we’re getting the extra member of full-time staff for exactly that reason. You know the score.’ Both men nodded, content to grumble about the mysterious ‘they’, aware that their moment of protest was over and their sights reset. You indulged in a little harmless whinging, then you got on with the work and enjoyed it, in this perfect setting. That was the British way. By way of closure, Dennis Cooper said, ‘How’s young Alex Fraser getting on?’
    â€˜Well enough. No, he’s doing better than that, if I’m honest. He’s got the poorest qualifications of all our present trainees, but I’d say he’s the most intelligent and the most determined. That makes him a quick learner.’
    Cooper nodded. ‘He’s got the toughest background. I suspect he truanted from school for a lot of his last few years. It was something of a gamble to take him on, in view of that. I’m glad he’s making the most of the opportunity.’
    Jim hesitated. He didn’t wish to run the young Scottish lad down, because he liked him and was delighted with the man’s love of plants and the propagation of them. But you had to be fair to the others as well as