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The combined bumps have given an impulse to the house under the influence of which it bears straight down upon the knoll with considerable force. Its gable-end is close to the smoking-box. Entranced with expectancy Ian sits in the punt panting and with eyes flashing. There is a sudden shock! Inside the house Peegwish and his chair are tumbled head over heels.
The current, which was not strong there, carried the cap straight to the knoll several hundred yards off, on which stood the smoking-box of old Sam Ravenshaw, and stranded it there. The incident turned the poor youth's mind back to brighter days and other scenes, especially to the last conversation which he had held with the owner of the smoking-box.
The old gentleman had barely reduced himself to quiescence, and the demon had only just begun to snore, when a cloud, no bigger than a man's body, arose on the horizon. Gradually it drew near, partially obscured the sky, and overshadowed the smoking-box in the form of Angus Macdonald, the father of Ian. "Coot tay to you, sir," said Angus. "You will pe enchoyin' your pipe this fine mornin'."
Outside, the gable has just touched as it were kissed the smoking-box, Elsie's "summer-house;" Beauty, flapping her wings at that moment on the ridge-pole, crows, and Angus Macdonald's dwelling is, finally and fairly, hard and fast upon Sam Ravenshaw's knoll. Now it must not be imagined that old Liz, after being carried away by the flood, submitted to her fate without a struggle.
We can only give a suggestive outline, as follows. The knoll, the smoking-box, the smoker, his words, "Mark what I say. I will sell this knoll to your father, and give my daughter to you, when you take that house, and with your own unaided hands place it on this knoll!"
I feel terribly dreary in this room to-night; the noise of the little pipe irritates me more than usual, and as Chrysanthème crouches in front of her smoking-box, I suddenly discover in her an air of low breeding, in the very worst sense of the word. I should hate her, my mousmé, if she were to entice Yves into committing a fault, a fault which I should perhaps never be able to forgive.
The sun shone warmly into the smoking-box. It sparkled on the myriad dew-drops that hung on the willows, and swept in golden glory over the rolling plains. The old gentleman sat down, puffed, and was happy. The narcotic influence operated, and the irascible demon in his breast fell sound asleep. How often do bright sunshine and profound calm precede a storm? Is not that a truism if not a newism.
From the window of the lumber-room Angus saw her reach it, scramble, somehow, on to its roof, and there utter a crow of defiance that would have done credit to her defunct husband. There was one other object besides his own house and surroundings which Angus saw from that window. It was the smoking-box on the willow-clad knoll, which formed a separate island in the flood.
Then pan, pan, pan, pan, the little tube is struck smartly against the edge of the smoking-box to knock out the ashes, which never will fall; and this tapping, heard everywhere, in every house, at every hour of the day or night, quick and droll as the scratching of a monkey, is in Japan one of the noises most characteristic of human life. "Anata nominasé!"
Thereupon we are invited into a large bright apartment in a wing of the building, overlooking a lovely garden. Little cushions are placed on the floor for us to sit upon; and a smoking-box is brought in, and a tiny lacquered table about eight inches high.
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