A fire was laid ready for lighting,
and the smell of moist soot spread from the grate. Having stood on
one spot for nearly ten minutes, Clara made a quick movement and
withdrew; she latched the front door with as little noise as
possible, ran upstairs and shut herself again in her own room.
Presently she was standing at her window, the blind partly raised.
On a clear day the view from this room was of wide extent, embracing
a great part of the City; seen under a low, blurred, dripping sky,
through the ragged patches of smoke from chimneys innumerable, it
had a gloomy impressiveness well in keeping with the mind of her who
brooded over it. Directly in front, rising mist-detached from the
lower masses of building, stood in black majesty the dome of St.
Paul's; its vastness suffered no diminution from this high outlook,
rather was exaggerated by the flying scraps of mirky vapour which
softened its outline and at times gave it the appearance of floating
on a vague troubled sea. Somewhat nearer, amid many spires and
steeples, lay the surly bulk of Newgate, the lines of its
construction shown plan-wise; its little windows multiplied for
points of torment to the vision.
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