But it is because I owe
partly to Christian and not all to myself this horrible solitude in
which I walk that I dare not risk a deeper. It would be, I feel sure.
And so I very willingly beheld Faithful burned; it restored my
confidence. And here, sir," he added, almost with gaiety, "lives my
friend Mrs. Simple, a widow. She enjoys my company and my old fables,
and we keep the blinds down against these mountains, and candles
burning against the brighter lightnings."
So saying, Superstition bade us good-night and passed down a little
by-lane on our left towards a country cottage, like a dreaming bower
of roses beneath the moon.
But Reverie and I continued on as if the moon herself as patiently
pursued us. And by-and-by we came to a house called Gloom, whose
gardens slope down with plashing fountains and glimmering banks of
flowers into the shadow and stillness of a broad valley, named beneath
the hills of Silence, Peace.
XI
_His soul shall taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung._
--JOHN KEATS.
Even as we entered the gates of Mr.
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