The Count of Monte Cristo

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inhabitants of the house left no grounds for apprehending that advantage
would be taken of that circumstance.

Horticulture seemed, however, to have been abandoned in the deserted
kitchen-garden; and where cabbages, carrots, radishes, pease, and melons
had once flourished, a scanty crop of lucerne alone bore evidence of its
being deemed worthy of cultivation. A small, low door gave egress from
the walled space we have been describing into the projected street, the
ground having been abandoned as unproductive by its various renters, and
had now fallen so completely in general estimation as to return not
even the one-half per cent it had originally paid. Towards the house
the chestnut-trees we have before mentioned rose high above the wall,
without in any way affecting the growth of other luxuriant shrubs and
flowers that eagerly dressed forward to fill up the vacant spaces, as
though asserting their right to enjoy the boon of light and air. At one
corner, where the foliage became so thick as almost to shut out day, a
large stone bench and sundry rustic seats indicated that this sheltered