There came,
occasionally, wild nights in October or November, with a gale from
the south-west and then, when almost everybody had gone to bed and
the fires were out, the clouds, illuminated by the moon, rushed
across the heavens, and the Great Bear hung over the dismal waste of
smutty tiles with the same solemnity with which it hangs over the
mountains, the sea, or the desert. Early in the morning, too, in
summer, between three and four o'clock in June, there were sights to
be seen worth seeing. The distance was clear for miles, and the
heights of Highgate were visible, proclaiming the gospel of a beyond
and beyond even to Kent's Court, and that its immediate surroundings
were mercifully not infinite. The light made even the nearest bit of
soot-grimed, twisted, rotten brickwork beautiful, and occasionally,
but at very rare intervals, the odour of London was vanquished, and a
genuine breath from the Brixton fields was able to find its way
uncontaminated across the river. Jean and Pauline were, on the
whole, fond of the court. They often thought they would prefer the
country, and talked about it; but it is very much to be doubted, if
they had been placed in Devonshire, whether they would not have
turned back uneasily after a time to their garret.
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