he could not but think what a blessed thing it would have been for this man if he had taken a lesson from the gentlemen who were so kind as to take the nation s affairs in charge and had learnt how not to do it mr hot and for about five minutes and then began to cool and clear up come come said he we shall not make this the better by being grim where do you think of going dan i shall go back to the factory said dan why then we ll all go back to the factory or walk in that direction returned cheerfully mr won t be by its being in bleeding heart yard bleeding heart yard said i want to go there so much the better cried mr come along as they went along certainly one of the party and probably more than one thought that bleeding heart yard was no destination for a man who had been in official correspondence with my lords and the � and perhaps had a also that herself might come to look for lodgings in bleeding heart yard some ugly day or other if she over did the office chapter xi let loose a late dull autumn night was closing in upon the river the stream like a looking glass in a gloomy place reflected the clouds heavily and the low banks leaned over here and there as if they were half curious and half afraid to see their darkening pictures in the water the flat expanse of country about lay a streak occasionally made a little ragged by a row of trees against the sunset on the banks of the river it was wet solitary and the night deepened fast one man slowly moving on towards was the only visible figure in the landscape might have looked as lonely and avoided with an old at his back and a rough stick cut out of some wood in his hand his shoes and trodden out his hair and beard the cloak he carried over his shoulder and the clothes he wore with wet along in pain and difficulty he looked as if the clouds were hurrying little from him as if the wail of the wind and the shuddering of the grass were directed against him as if the low mysterious of the water murmured at him as if the fitful autumn night were disturbed by him he glanced here and he glanced there sullenly but and sometimes stopped and turned about and looked all round him then he on again toiling and muttering to the devil with this plain that has no end to the devil with these stones that cut like knives to the devil with this dismal darkness itself about one with a chill i hate you and he would have visited his hatred upon it all with the he threw about him if he could he a little further and looking into the distance before him stopped again i hungry thirsty weary you where the lights are yonder eating and drinking and warming yourselves at fires i wish i had the of your town i would repay you my children but the teeth he set at the town and the hand he shook at the town brought the town no nearer and the man was yet and and when his feet were on its jagged pavement and he stood looking about him there was the hotel with its and its smell of cooking there was the with its bright windows and its rattling of there was the s with its of red cloth on the there was the s with its ear rings and its for there was the tobacco dealer s with its lively group of soldier customers coming out pipe in mouth there were the bad of the town and the rain and refuse in the and the faint lamps across the road and the huge diligence and its mountain of luggage and its six grey horses with their tails tied up getting under weigh at the coach office but no small for a traveller being within sight he had to seek one round the dark corner where the leaves lay trodden about the public at which women had not yet left off drawing water there in the back street he found one the break of day the windows clouded the break of day but it seemed light and warm and it announced in with appropriate of cue and ball that at the break of day one could play that there one could find meat drink and lodging whether one came on horseback or came on foot and that it kept good and brandy the man turned the handle of the break of day door and in he touched his hat as he came in at the door to a few men who occupied the room two were playing at one of the little tables three or four were seated round the stove conversing as they smoked the table in the centre was left alone for the time the landlady of the daybreak sat behind her little counter among her cloudy bottles of baskets of cakes and leaden for glasses working at her needle making his way to an empty little table in a corner of the room behind the stove he put down his and his cloak upon the ground as he raised his head from stooping to do so he found the landlady beside him one can lodge here to night madame little perfectly said the landlady in a high sing song cheery voice good one can dine � sup � what you please to call it ah perfectly cried the landlady as before then madame if you please something to eat as quickly as you can and some wine at once i am exhausted it is very bad weather said the landlady cursed weather and a very long road 