I was
taken finally to a little pavilion of stone, with heavily barred
windows, and a flagged marble floor. The room was absolutely bare, and
contained neither seat nor table. Into this I was thrust, with some
obscene jesting, and the door was locked upon me.
The time passed very heavily. At intervals I heard music burst out
among the alleys, and a good many people came to peep in upon me
with an amused curiosity. I was entirely bewildered by my position,
and did not see what I could have done to have incurred my punishment.
But in the solitary hours that followed I began to have a suspicion
of my fault. I had found myself hitherto the object of so much attention
and praise, that I had developed a strong sense of complacency and
self-satisfaction. I had an uncomfortable suspicion that there was even
more behind, but I could not, by interrogating my mind and searching out
my spirits, make out clearly what it was; yet I felt I was having a
sharp lesson; and this made me resolve that I would ask for no kind of
assistance from Amroth or any other power, but that I would try to meet
whatever fell upon me with patience, and extract the full savour of my
experience.
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