"My English is not good enough for me to understand your French," Sophie had returned, "but I collect that you were setting in front of me some advice as to how I should manage my garden. Please know that I love my garden as it is: not only the living but also the dying parts of it. It is not meant to be some phantasm of eternal and perfect life. Such a garden did exist once, or so the Bible instructs us; but it was brought to an ill end by a snake who fell out of a tree. " This with a very dubious head-to-toe look at Braithwaite, who turned magenta and backed off.