← There, on that October evening—there, in that exuberant vista of gilding and crimson velvet set amidst all those opposing mirrors and upholding caryatids, with fumes of tobacco ever rising to the painted and pagan ceiling, and with the hum of presumably cynical conversation broken into so sharply now and again by the clatter of dominoes shuffled on marble tables, I drew a deep breath and, "This indeed," said I to myself, "is life!" 🔊
← This was on an evening in January. 🔊
← But on the evening of that day Soames went, too. 🔊
← Was it in the Green Park or in Kensington Gardens or where was it that I sat on a chair beneath a tree, trying to read an evening paper? 🔊
← I had bought another evening paper on my way. 🔊
← I spent most of the long evening in renewed appeals to Soames to come away and seek refuge somewhere. 🔊