‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t remember that I ever attempted to find my way
back to the garden in those early years. This seems odd to me now, but
I think that very probably a closer watch was kept on my movements
after this misadventure to prevent my going astray. No, it wasn’t till
you knew me that I tried for the garden again. And I believe there
was a period--incredible as it seems now--when I forgot the garden
altogether--when I was about eight or nine it may have been. Do you
remember me as a kid at Saint Æthelstan’s?’
‘Rather!’
‘I didn’t show any signs, did I, in those days of having a secret
dream?’