The First Violin (Volume 1)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1896. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... counted amongst them, was gone. The roll of my skates upon the ice had lost its music for me: the wind felt colder--I sadder. At least I thought so. Should I go away again now that this disturbing element had appeared upon the scene? No, no, no, said something eagerly within me, and I bit my lip, and choked back a kind of sob of disgust as I realized that despite my gloomy reflections my heart was beating a high, rapid march of--joy! as I skimmed, all alone, far away from the crowd, amongst the dismal withered reeds, and round the little islets of stiffened grass and rushes, which were frozen upright in their places. The daylight faded, and the moon rose. The people were going away. The distant buzz of laughter had grown silent. I could dimly discern some few groups, but very few, still left, and one or two solitary figures. Even my preternatural eagerness could not discern who they were. The darkness, the long walk home, the Probe at seven, which I should be too tired to attend, all had quite slipped from my mind: it was possible that amongst those figures which I still dimly saw, was yet remaining that of Courvoisier, and surely there was no harm in my staying here. I struck out in another direction, and flew on in the keen air; the frosty moon shedding a weird light upon the black ice; I saw the railway lines, polished, gleaming too in the light: the belt of dark firs to my right; the red sand soil frozen hard and silvered over with frost. Flat and tame, but still beautiful. I felt a kind of rejoicing in it: I felt it home. I was probably the first person who had been there since the freezing of the mere, thought I, and that idea was soon converted to a certainty in my mind, for in a second my rapid career was interrupted. At the farthest point from help or h...