However many years she lived, Mary always felt that 'she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow'.

"It's so beautiful!" she said, a little breathless with her speed. "You never saw anything so beautiful! It has come! I thought it had come that other morning, but it was only coming. It is here now! It has come, the Spring!"

Of course there must be lots of Magic in the world, but people don't know what it is like or how to make it.

I don't know who it is," she said; "but somebody cares for me a little. I have a friend.

Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage.

...and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay parties.

And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.