"It will be strange to find them dim and small again," said Trench.
"There will be compensations," answered Feversham, with a laugh; and
they fell to making plans of what they would do when they had crossed
the desert and the Mediterranean and the continent of Europe, and had
come to their own country of dim small stars. Fascinated and enthralled
by the pictures which the simplest sentence, the most commonplace
phrase, through the magic of its associations was able to evoke in their
minds, they let the hours slip by unnoticed. They were no longer
prisoners in that barbarous town which lay a murky stain upon the
solitary wide spaces of sand; they were in their own land, following
their old pursuits. They were standing outside clumps of trees, guns in
their hands, while the sharp cry, "Mark! Mark!" came to their ears.
Trench heard again the unmistakable rattle of the reel of his
fishing-rod as he wound in his line upon the bank of his trout stream.
They talked of theatres in London, and the last plays which they had
seen, the last books which they had read six years ago.
"There goes the Great Bear," said Trench, suddenly. "It is late." The
tail of the constellation was dipping behind the thorn hedge of the
zareeba.
Pages:
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418