f000001,17.440,19.600,"Start of chapter twenty seven."
f000002,19.600,26.920,"The spring was come; it was late, but it therefore burst out more rapidly and more exhilaratingly than usual."
f000003,26.920,30.480,"Ottilie now found in the garden the fruits of her carefulness."
f000004,30.480,34.440,"Everything shot up and came out in leaf and flower at its proper time."
f000005,34.440,53.160,"A number of plants which she had been training up under glass frames and in hot beds now burst forward at once to meet, at last, the ad vances of nature; and whatever there was to do, and to take care of, it did not remain the mere labor of hope which it had been, but brought its reward in immediate and substantial enjoyment."
f000006,53.160,64.640,"There was many a chasm, however, among the finest shoots produced by Luciana's wild ways, for which she had to console the gardener, and the symmetry of many a leafy coronet was destroyed."
f000007,64.640,76.600,"She tried to encourage him to hope that it would all be soon restored again, but he had too deep a feeling, and too pure an idea of the nature of his business, for such grounds of comfort to be of much service with him."
f000008,76.600,90.280,"Little as the gardener allowed himself to have his attention dissipated by other tastes and inclinations, he could the less bear to have the peaceful course interrupted which the plant follows to ward its enduring or its transient perfection."
f000009,90.280,97.480,"A plant is like a selfwilled man, out of whom we can obtain all Elective Affinities which we desire, if we will only treat him his own way."
f000010,97.480,108.080,"A calm eye, a silent method, in all seasons of the year, and at every hour, to do exactly what has then to be done, is required of no one perhaps more than of a gardener."
f000011,108.080,122.160,"These qualities the good man possessed in an eminent de gree, and it was on that account that Ottilie liked so well to work with him; but for some time past he had not found himself able to exercise his peculiar talent with any pleasure to himself."
f000012,122.160,130.440,"Whatever concerned the fruit gardening or kitchengardening, as well as whatever had in time past been required in the ornamental gardens, he understood perfectly."
f000013,130.440,135.720,"One man succeeds in one thing, another in another; he succeeded in these."
f000014,135.720,145.200,"In his man agement of the orangery, of the bulbous flowers, in bud ding shoots and growing cuttings from the carnations and auriculas, he might challenge nature herself."
f000015,145.200,150.840,"But the new ornamental shrubs and fashionable flowers re mained in a measure strange to him."
f000016,150.840,160.520,"He had a kind of shyness of the endless field of botany, which had been lately opening itself, and the strange names humming about his ears made him cross and illtempered."
f000017,160.520,168.960,"The orders for flowers which had been made by his lord and lady in the course of the past year he considered so much useless waste and extravagance."
f000018,168.960,178.480,"All the more, as he saw many valuable plants disappear; and as he had ceased to stand on the best possible terms with the nursery gar deners, who he fancied had not been serving him honestly."
f000019,178.480,195.320,"Consequently, after a number of attempts, he had formed a plan, in which Ottilie encouraged him the more Elective Affinities readily, because its first essential condition was the return of Edward, whose absence in this, as in many other mat ters, every day had to be felt more and more seriously."
f000020,195.320,201.920,"Now that the plants were ever striking new roots, and putting out their shoots, Ottilie felt herself even more fettered to this spot."
f000021,201.920,209.840,"It was just a year since she had come there as a stranger, as a mere insignificant creature."
f000022,209.840,214.680,"but, alas ! how much had she not also since that time lost again !"
f000023,214.680,218.320,"Never had she been so rich, and never so poor."
f000024,218.320,233.760,"The feelings of her loss and of her gain alternated mo mentarily one with another, chasing each other through her heart; and she could find no other means to help herself, except always to set to work again at what lay nearest to her, with such interest as she could command."
f000025,233.760,239.400,"That everything which she knew to be dear to Edward received especial care from her may be supposed."
f000026,239.400,249.840,"And why should she not hope that he himself would now soon come back again; and that when present, he would show himself grateful for all the care and pains which she had taken for him in his absence?"
f000027,249.840,266.600,"But there was also a far different employment which she took upon herself in his service; she had undertaken the principal charge of the child, whose immediate at tendant it was all the easier for her to be, as they had determined not to put it into the hands of a nurse, but to bring it up themselves by hand with milk and water."
f000028,266.600,286.400,"In the beautiful season it was much out of doors, enjoying the free air, and Ottilie liked best to take it out herself, Elective Affinities to carry the unconscious sleeping infant among the flowers and blossoms which should one day smile so brightly on its childhood among the young shrubs and plants, which, by their youth, seemed designed to grow up with the young lord to their after stature."
f000029,286.400,295.880,"When she looked about her, she did not hide from herself to what a high position that child was born : far and wide, wher ever the eye could see, all would one day belong to him."
f000030,295.880,305.040,"How desirable, how necessary it must therefore be, that it should grow up under the eyes of its father and its mo ther, and renew and strengthen the union between them."
f000031,305.040,314.120,"Ottilie saw all this so clearly that she represented it to herself as conclusively decided, and for herself, as con cerned with it, she never felt at all."
f000032,314.120,327.400,"Under this fair heaven, by this bright sunshine, at once it became clear to her that her love, if it would perfect itself, must become altogether unselfish; and there were many moments in which she believed it was an elevation which she had already at tained."
f000033,327.400,329.760,"She only desired the wellbeing of her friend."
f000034,329.760,335.880,"She fancied herself able to resign him, and never to see him any more, if she could only know that he was happy."
f000035,335.880,341.160,"The one only determination which she formed for her self was never to belong to another."
f000036,341.160,344.960,"They had taken care that the autumn should be no less brilliant than the spring."
f000037,344.960,360.000,"Sunflowers were there, and all the other plants which are never tired of blossoming in autumn, and continue boldly on into the cold; asters especially were sown in abundance, and scattered about in all directions, to form a starry heaven upon the earth."
f000038,360.000,380.960,"Elective Affinities FROM OTTILIE S DIARY Any good thought which we have read, anything striking which we have heard, we commonly enter in our diary; but if we would take the trouble, at the same time, to copy out i of our friends' letters the remarkable obser vations, the original ideas, the hasty words so pregnant in meaning, which we might find in them, we should then be rich indeed."
f000039,380.960,393.520,"We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverably for ourselves and for others."
f000040,393.520,396.680,"I intend to make amends in future for such neglect."
f000041,396.680,400.800,"So, then, once more the old story of the year is being repeated over again."
f000042,400.800,404.440,"We are come now, thank God, again to its most charming chapter."
f000043,404.440,408.640,"The violets and the Mayflowers are as its superscriptions and its vignettes."
f000044,408.640,414.000,"It always makes a pleasant impression on us when we open again at these pages in the book of life."
f000045,414.000,419.920,"We find fault with the poor, particularly with the lit tle ones among them, when they loiter about the streets and beg."
f000046,419.920,425.240,"Do we not observe that they begin to work again as soon as ever there is anything for them to do?"
f000047,425.240,432.400,"Hardly has nature unfolded her smiling treasures than the children are at once upon her track to open out a call ing for themselves."
f000048,432.400,444.680,"None of them beg any more; they have each a nosegay to offer you; they were out and gath ering it before you had awakened out of your sleep, and the supplicating face looks as sweetly at you as the present Elective Affinities which the hand is holding out."
f000049,444.680,448.920,"No one looks miserable who feels he has a right to make a demand upon you."
f000050,448.920,452.280,"How is it that the year sometimes seems so short, and sometimes is so long?"
f000051,452.280,458.160,"How is it that it is so short when it is passing, and so long as we look back over it?"
f000052,458.160,473.440,"When I think of the past and it never comes so power fully over me as in the garden, I feel how the perishing and the enduring work one upon the other, and there is nothing whose endurance is so brief as not to leave behind it some trace of itself, something in its own likeness."
f000053,473.440,475.560,"We are able to tolerate the winter."
f000054,475.560,481.040,"We fancy that we can extend ourselves more freely when the trees are so spectral, so transparent."
f000055,481.040,494.600,"They are nothing, but they conceal nothing; but when once the germs and buds begin to show, then we become impatient for the full foliage to come out, for the landscape to put on its body, and the tree to stand before us as a form."
f000056,494.600,499.280,"Everything which is perfect in its kind must pass out beyond and transcend its kind."
f000057,499.280,503.080,"It must be an inimitable something of another and a higher nature."
f000058,503.080,512.320,"In many of its tones the nightingale is only a bird; then it rises up above its class, and seems as if it would teach every feath ered creature what singing really is."
f000059,512.320,517.760,"A life without love, without the presence of the be loved, is nothing but a mere magiclantern show."
f000060,517.760,523.240,"We draw out slide after slide, swiftly tiring of each, and pushing it back to make haste to the next."
f000061,523.240,528.840,"Even what we know to be good and important hangs but wearily together; every step is an end, and a fresh beginning."
f000062,528.840,529.640,"end of  chapter."