Glory 'contained'

October scene in Granby, Conn.

“It was a radiant October day. Connecticut suggested an outrageous show-off, the low hills overflowing with autumnal brilliance, eruptions of golden leaves, friezes of crimson, the pines maintaining their sober greenness amid the blaze like sentinels.

“All this last glory of the growing season was nevertheless contained, neat, firmly — for centuries now — under control: this was New England.’’

From the novel A Stolen Past (1985), by John Knowles (1926-2001)