While the secret garden was returning to life, a man with high crooked shoulders was wandering round the most beautiful places in Europe. For ten years he had lived this lonely life his heart full of sadness and his head full of dark dreams. Everywhere he went, he carried his unhappiness with him like a black cloud. Other travellers thought he was half mad or a man who could not forget some terrible crime. His name was Archibald Craven.
But one day, as he sat by a mountain stream, he actually looked at a flower, and for the first time in ten years he realized how beautiful something living could be. The valley seemed very quiet as he sat there, staring at the Mower. He felt strangely calm.