In the stony
niche crouched a stray cat watching the twittering sparrows.
Miltoun went out, and, turning into the empty Strand, walked on--without
heeding where, till towards five o'clock he found himself on Putney
Bridge.
He rested there, leaning over the parapet, looking down at the grey
water. The sun was just breaking through the heat haze; early waggons
were passing, and already men were coming in to work. To what end did
the river wander up and down; and a human river flow across it twice
every day? To what end were men and women suffering? Of the full
current of this life Miltoun could no more see the aim, than that of the
wheeling gulls in the early sunlight.
Leaving the bridge he made towards Barnes Common. The night was
still ensnared there on the gorse bushes grey with cobwebs and starry
dewdrops. He passed a tramp family still sleeping, huddled all together.
Even the homeless lay in each other's arms!
From the Common he emerged on the road near the gates of Ravensham;
turning in there, he found his way to the kitchen garden, and sat down
on a bench close to the raspberry bushes. They were protected from
thieves, but at Miltoun's approach two blackbirds flustered out through
the netting and flew away.
His long figure resting so motionless impressed itself on the eyes of a
gardener, who caused a report to be circulated that his young lordship
was in the fruit garden.
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