1 She was just thinking this when she saw that, at the end of the path she was following, there seemed to be a long wall, with ivy growing over it.
2 She went toward the wall and found that there was a green door in the ivy, and that it stood open.
3 There were bare flower-beds on either side of it and against the walls ivy grew thickly.
4 No one but herself ever seemed to come there, so she could walk slowly and look at the wall, or, rather, at the ivy growing on it.
5 The ivy was the baffling thing.
6 She stopped with a little laugh of pleasure, and there, lo and behold, was the robin swaying on a long branch of ivy.
7 The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off.
8 It was strong enough to wave the branches of the trees, and it was more than strong enough to sway the trailing sprays of untrimmed ivy hanging from the wall.
9 Mary had stepped close to the robin, and suddenly the gust of wind swung aside some loose ivy trails, and more suddenly still she jumped toward it and caught it in her hand.
10 Thick as the ivy hung, it nearly all was a loose and swinging curtain, though some had crept over wood and iron.
11 But she was inside the wonderful garden and she could come through the door under the ivy any time and she felt as if she had found a world all her own.
12 Then she ran lightly across the grass, pushed open the slow old door and slipped through it under the ivy.
13 She led him round the laurel path and to the walk where the ivy grew so thickly.
14 When she stepped to the wall and lifted the hanging ivy he started.
15 When she slipped through the door under the ivy, she saw he was not working where she had left him.