Through the stir and motion of the commoner streets; through the roar and jar of many vehicles, many feet, many voices; with the blazing shop-lights lighting him on, the west wind blowing him on, and the crowd pressing him on, he is pitilessly urged upon his way, and nothing meets him murmuring,
"Don't go home!"
Arrived at last in his dull room to light his candles, and look round and up, and see the Roman pointing from the ceiling, there is no new significance in the Roman's hand to-night or in the flutter of the attendant groups to give him the late warning,
"Don't come here!"
It is a moonlight night, but the moon, being past the full, is only now rising over the great wilderness of London.
The stars are shining as they shone above the turret-leads at Chesney Wold.
This woman, as he has of late been so accustomed to call her, looks out upon them.
Her soul is turbulent within her; she is sick at heart and restless.
The large rooms are too cramped and close.
She cannot endure their restraint and will walk alone in a neighbouring garden.
Too capricious and imperious in all she does to be the cause of much surprise in those about her as to anything she does, this woman, loosely muffled, goes out into the moonlight.
Mercury attends with the key.
Having opened the garden-gate, he delivers the key into his Lady's hands at her request and is bidden to go back.
She will walk there some time to ease her aching head.
She may be an hour, she may be more.
She needs no further escort.
The gate shuts upon its spring with a clash, and he leaves her passing on into the dark shade of some trees.
A fine night, and a bright large moon, and multitudes of stars.
Mr. Tulkinghorn, in repairing to his cellar and in opening and shutting those resounding doors, has to cross a little prison-like yard.
He looks up casually, thinking what a fine night, what a bright large moon, what multitudes of stars!
A quiet night, too.
A very quiet night.
When the moon shines very brilliantly, a solitude and stillness seem to proceed from her that influence even crowded places full of life.
Not only is it a still night on dusty high roads and on hill-summits, whence a wide expanse of country may be seen in repose, quieter and quieter as it spreads away into a fringe of trees against the sky with the grey ghost of a bloom upon them; not only is it a still night in gardens and in woods, and on the river where the water-meadows are fresh and green, and the stream sparkles on among pleasant islands, murmuring weirs, and whispering rushes; not only does the stillness attend it as it flows where houses cluster thick, where many bridges are reflected in it, where wharves and shipping make it black and awful, where it winds from these disfigurements through marshes whose grim beacons stand like skeletons washed ashore, where it expands through the bolder region of rising grounds, rich in cornfield wind-mill and steeple, and where it mingles with the ever-heaving sea; not only is it a still night on the deep, and on the shore where the watcher stands to see the ship with her spread wings cross the path of light that appears to be presented to only him; but even on this stranger's wilderness of London there is some rest.
Its steeples and towers and its one great dome grow more ethereal; its smoky house-tops lose their grossness in the pale effulgence; the noises that arise from the streets are fewer and are softened, and the footsteps on the pavements pass more tranquilly away.
In these fields of Mr. Tulkinghorn's inhabiting, where the shepherds play on Chancery pipes that have no stop, and keep their sheep in the fold by hook and by crook until they have shorn them exceeding close, every noise is merged, this moonlight night, into a distant ringing hum, as if the city were a vast glass, vibrating.
What's that?
Who fired a gun or pistol?
Where was it?
The few foot-passengers start, stop, and stare about them.
Some windows and doors are opened, and people come out to look.
It was a loud report and echoed and rattled heavily.
It shook one house, or so a man says who was passing.
It has aroused all the dogs in the neighbourhood, who bark vehemently.
Terrified cats scamper across the road.
While the dogs are yet barking and howling--there is one dog howling like a demon--the church-clocks, as if they were startled too, begin to strike.
The hum from the streets, likewise, seems to swell into a shout.
But it is soon over.
Before the last clock begins to strike ten, there is a lull.
When it has ceased, the fine night, the bright large moon, and multitudes of stars, are left at peace again.
Has Mr. Tulkinghorn been disturbed?
His windows are dark and quiet, and his door is shut.
It must be something unusual indeed to bring him out of his shell.
Nothing is heard of him, nothing is seen of him.
What power of cannon might it take to shake that rusty old man out of his immovable composure?
For many years the persistent Roman has been pointing, with no particular meaning, from that ceiling.
It is not likely that he has any new meaning in him to-night.
Once pointing, always pointing--like any Roman, or even Briton, with a single idea.
There he is, no doubt, in his impossible attitude, pointing, unavailingly, all night long.
Moonlight, darkness, dawn, sunrise, day.