"Growing Up" by Joyce Cary.

This short story is about a father coming home from a business trip to his family. He expects joy and excitement at his homecoming from his daughters and is surprised by their indifference. He meets his daughters and they begin to behave in an alarmingly violent fashion. He panics but the 'game' ceases as abruptly as it had started. Later the girls' mother arrives with the welfare committee and they conduct themselves like well-educated young …

…made good use of comparing the wild garden to the savage girls by first introducing the garden and Quick's pride of it and then subtly contrasting it with the girls' personalities. Quick's reaction of surprise toward these brutal and sudden changes in his daughters only highlight the fact that he doesn't really know his children. The girls are shown as innocence gone vicious due to the neglect of their parents though the parents mean well.