features of the heath, the white surface of the road remained almost
as clear as ever.




II

Humanity Appears upon the Scene, Hand in Hand with Trouble


Along the road walked an old man. He was white-headed as a mountain,
bowed in the shoulders, and faded in general aspect. He wore a
glazed hat, an ancient boat-cloak, and shoes; his brass buttons
bearing an anchor upon their face. In his hand was a silver-headed
walking-stick, which he used as a veritable third leg, perseveringly
dotting the ground with its point at every few inches' interval. One
would have said that he had been, in his day, a naval officer of some
sort or other.

Before him stretched the long, laborious road, dry, empty, and white.
It was quite open to the heath on each side, and bisected that
vast dark surface like the parting-line on a head of black hair,
diminishing and bending away on the furthest horizon.

The old man frequently stretched his eyes ahead to gaze over the tract
that he had yet to traverse. At length he discerned, a long distance
in front of him, a moving spot, which appeared to be a vehicle, and
it proved to be going the same way as that in which he himself was
journeying. It was the single atom of life that the scene contained,