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Article THE LUCKY INHERITANCE. ← Page 15 of 19 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Lucky Inheritance.
came apparent in the sky , and I thought it prudent to return to the " Pelican" before the storm eame on . It Avas as well that I did so , for one minute ' s exposure to such a rain as began to fall would have completely drenched any one exposed to it ; the lightning , too , was excessively vivid , and the thunder roared above the old town as if the spirit that guided the tempest Avas
proclaiming that its hour Avas come . As I stood at the window Avatching the flashes playing amongst the carved pinnacles of the abbey church of St . Meriadec , the patron saint of Guerande , my thoughts involuntarily reverted to Monsieur Roqueplan . " If he means to return to Guerande this evening , " I said to myself" I don't envy him the walkhe spoke of remaining some
, ; time at his farm , and there seems little prospect of the storm abating before dark . He is too lucky , however , not to be under coA er , and very comfortably , too , I dare say . " Having thus satisfactorily disposed of the little game-purveyor ,
I obtained a lamp , had the shutters closed , and betook myself to a book—a local history , such as every town in France produces wherever there is a bookseller , and Guerande even had one—with Avhich I occupied myself for the rest of the evening . It was late when I left off reading , and by that time the storm had quite exhausted itself . I looked out upon the night before
I went to bed . Everything -was perfectly still ; the huge weathercock on the spire of St . Meriadec glittered in the moonlight , and there Avas not a breath of air to make it veer . On one side was a roAv of tall houses , casting a deep and fantastic shadow half-way across the market-place ; the church , the opposite buildingsand the rest of the square stood out Avhite and
, rigid . Under either aspect Guerande , Avith its noiseless population , suggested the idea of a city of the dead . Noiseless the toAvn might be , but not altogether Avithout a living being ; for , as I turned away from the window , I saAv the figure of a man emerge from the shadowed side of the market-place and cross over to the narrow street Avhich led toAvards the Rue de Guenic :
it was somebody , I supposed , belated by the storm , for that any one should of their own free will Avalk about at night in the streets of Guerande seemed out of the question . I should just as soon of thought of " keeping it up " at the same hour in a churchyard . There are—perhaps I need scarcelannounce the fact—no
y newspapers published in Guerande ; neither do I believe that such a thing is ever seen there from one year's end to another . Yet , if a second edition of the Times , duly translated , had just been distributed in the market-place , the news it contained , Avhatever its complexion , could scarcely more have disturbed
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Lucky Inheritance.
came apparent in the sky , and I thought it prudent to return to the " Pelican" before the storm eame on . It Avas as well that I did so , for one minute ' s exposure to such a rain as began to fall would have completely drenched any one exposed to it ; the lightning , too , was excessively vivid , and the thunder roared above the old town as if the spirit that guided the tempest Avas
proclaiming that its hour Avas come . As I stood at the window Avatching the flashes playing amongst the carved pinnacles of the abbey church of St . Meriadec , the patron saint of Guerande , my thoughts involuntarily reverted to Monsieur Roqueplan . " If he means to return to Guerande this evening , " I said to myself" I don't envy him the walkhe spoke of remaining some
, ; time at his farm , and there seems little prospect of the storm abating before dark . He is too lucky , however , not to be under coA er , and very comfortably , too , I dare say . " Having thus satisfactorily disposed of the little game-purveyor ,
I obtained a lamp , had the shutters closed , and betook myself to a book—a local history , such as every town in France produces wherever there is a bookseller , and Guerande even had one—with Avhich I occupied myself for the rest of the evening . It was late when I left off reading , and by that time the storm had quite exhausted itself . I looked out upon the night before
I went to bed . Everything -was perfectly still ; the huge weathercock on the spire of St . Meriadec glittered in the moonlight , and there Avas not a breath of air to make it veer . On one side was a roAv of tall houses , casting a deep and fantastic shadow half-way across the market-place ; the church , the opposite buildingsand the rest of the square stood out Avhite and
, rigid . Under either aspect Guerande , Avith its noiseless population , suggested the idea of a city of the dead . Noiseless the toAvn might be , but not altogether Avithout a living being ; for , as I turned away from the window , I saAv the figure of a man emerge from the shadowed side of the market-place and cross over to the narrow street Avhich led toAvards the Rue de Guenic :
it was somebody , I supposed , belated by the storm , for that any one should of their own free will Avalk about at night in the streets of Guerande seemed out of the question . I should just as soon of thought of " keeping it up " at the same hour in a churchyard . There are—perhaps I need scarcelannounce the fact—no
y newspapers published in Guerande ; neither do I believe that such a thing is ever seen there from one year's end to another . Yet , if a second edition of the Times , duly translated , had just been distributed in the market-place , the news it contained , Avhatever its complexion , could scarcely more have disturbed