Indeed, that gentleman also seemed meditative, and the
silence lasted until the reappearance of Madame, in a brown robe--of a
slightly tea-gown type--trimmed with green chiffon and coffee-coloured
lace, a black bonnet adorned with about a score of imitation plums
made in some highly-glazed material, a heavy cloak lined with priceless
rabbit-skins, and the outdoor boots.
If the Prophet had found the journey to the Mouse a painful experience,
what can be said of his feelings during the journey from that noble
stream? Long afterwards he recalled his state of mind during the
tramp across the Common among the broken crockery, the dust-heaps, the
decaying vegetables and the occasional lurking rats, the journey in the
train, the reembarkment upon the purple 'bus from the gentle eminence
sloping towards the coal-yard, the long pilgrimage towards the central
districts with his very outlying companions. He recalled the peculiar
numbness that strove against the desperation of his thoughts, his feeble
efforts to lay plans frustrated by a perpetual buzzing in his brain, his
flitting visions of that gentle grandmother round whose venerable age
and dignity he was about to group such peculiar personalities, and
beneath whose roof he was about to indulge in such unholy prophetic
practices.
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