"I haven't heard it yet," I confessed. "It wasn't really so much to
see the lobretias as to hear the cuckoo that I came to have tea with
you. I feel just the same about it; it's the beginning of
everything. And I said to myself, 'Miss Middleton may not have a
first-rate show of lobretias, because possibly it is an unfavourable
soil for them, or they may not fit in with the colour scheme; but
she does know what is essential to a proper garden, and she'll have
a cuckoo.'"
"Yes, we do ourselves very well," said Miss Middleton confidently.
"Well, I didn't like to say anything about it before, because I
thought it might make you nervous, and so I've been talking of other
things. But now that the secret is out, I may say that I am quite
ready." I stopped and listened intently with my head on one side.
There was an appalling silence.
"I don't seem to hear it," I said at last.
"But _I_ haven't heard it here yet," Miss Middleton protested. "It
was in Hampshire. The cuckoos here are always a bit late. You see,
our garden takes a little finding. It isn't so well known in--in
Africa, or wherever they come from--as Hampshire."
"Yes, but when I've come down specially to hear it--"
"CUCK-OO," said Miss Middleton suddenly, and looked very innocent.
"There, that was the nightingale, but it's the cuckoo I really want
to hear."
"I AM sorry about it. If you like, I'll listen to you while you tell
me who you think ought to play for England. I can't make it more
summery for you than that. Unless roses are any good?"
"No, don't bother," I said in some disappointment; "you've done your
best. We can't all have cuckoos any more than we can all have
lobretias. I must come again in August, when one of the pioneers may
have struggled here. Of course in Hampshire--"
"CUCK-OO," said somebody from the apple tree.
"There!" cried Miss Middleton.
"That's much better," I said. "Now make it come from the laburnum,
Lieutenant."
"I'm not doing it, really!" she said. "At least only the first
time."
"CUCK-OO," said somebody from the apple tree again.
There was no doubt about it. I let my deck-chair down a rung and
prepared to welcome the summer.
"Now," I said, "we're off."