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A Laodicean, Or, the Castle of the De Stancys: a Story of Today
A Laodicean Or the Castle of the De Stancys a Story of Today Author:Thomas Hardy Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3On calling in the landlord, however, they learnt that the house was full of farmers on their way home from a large sheep- fair in the neighbourhood, and that several of these, having decid... more »ed to stay on account of the same tempestuous weather, had already engaged the spare beds. If Mr. Dare would give up his room, and share a double-bedded room with Mr. Havill, the thing could be done, but not otherwise. To this the two companions agreed, and presently went upstairs with as gentlemanly a walk and vertical a candle as they could exhibit under the circumstances. The other inmates of the inn soon retired to rest, and the storm raged on unheeded by all local humanity. CHAPTER III. At two o'clock the rain lessened its fury. At half-past two the obscured moon shone forth ; and at three Havill awoke. The blind had not been pulled down overnight, and the moonlight streamed into the room, across the bed whereon Dare was sleeping. He lay on his back, his arms thrown out; and his well-curved youthful form looked like an unpedestalecl Dionysus in the colourless lunar rays. Sleep had cleared Havill's mind from the drowsing effects of the last night's sitting, and he thought of Dare's mysterious manner in speaking of himself. This lad resembled the Etruscan youth Tages, in one respect, that of being a boy with, seemingly, the wisdom of a sage; and the effect of his presence Was now heightened by all those sinister and mystic attributes which are lent by nocturnal environment. He who in broad daylight might be but a young textit{chevalier d'Industrie was now an unlimited possibility in social phenomena. Havill remembered how the lad had pointed to his breast, and said that his secret was literally kept there. The architect was too much of a provincial to have quenched the common curiosity that was part of hi...« less