Then he snatched his parcel from off the
seat and went, ay, nearly ran, down the patch, with the short, tottering
steps of an old man.
I leant back and looked at the retreating figure that seemed to shrink at
each step as it passed away. I do not know from where the impression came,
but it appeared to me that I had never in my life seen a more vile back
than this one, and I did not regret that I had abused the creature before
he left me.
The day began to decline, the sun sank, it commenced to rustle lightly in
the trees around, and the nursemaids who sat in groups near the parallel
bars made ready to wheel their perambulators home. I was calmed and in
good spirit. The excitement I had just laboured under quieted down little
by little, and I grew weaker, more languid, and began to feel drowsy.
Neither did the quantity of bread I had eaten cause me any longer any
particular distress. I leant against the back of the seat in the best of
humours, closed my eyes, and got more and more sleepy. I dozed, and was
just on the point of falling asleep, when a park-keeper put his hand on my
shoulder and said:
"You must not sit here and go to sleep!"
"No?" I said, and sprang immediately up, my unfortunate position rising
all at once vividly before my eyes. I must do something; find some way or
another out of it. To look for situations had been of no avail to me. Even
the recommendations I showed had grown a little old, and were written by
people all too little known to be of much use; besides that, constant
refusals all through the summer had somewhat disheartened me.
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