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In one dark corner stood an ancient harp; then there was the spinning-wheel, itself a curiosity fit for a museum, testifying dumbly of the mistress of all these surroundings, and on the floor there was something else, something that both the young men were strongly inclined to take possession of. It was only a bunch of tiny meadow daisies, fastened together with a bit of blue silk.
She was determined to maintain a calm attitude; but her heart quickened a little in spite of her. She saw that he had chosen an exit that would lead them away from the crowd. Dumbly they descended the steps, Fletcher unhesitatingly drawing her forward. The garden was a marvel of many-coloured lights, intricate and bewildering as a maze. Its paths were all carpeted, and their feet made no sound.
He dwelt upon the thought again as he gazed dumbly about for his employer; and then suddenly the outer world the plain, rough, rocks-and-cactus world that he had lived in before they came flashed up before him in all its uncompromising clearness; the judge was nowhere in sight!
"I've a fancy to see that picture. Want to be reminded of what I looked like fifteen years ago. I was a handsome fellow then. I'm going to take the pelts." Pete looked dumbly up at him, his lips parted. Bella twisted her apron about her hands. Both seemed to know the hopelessness of protest. In the same anxious dumbness they watched Garth make ready for his trip.
'T was on a sundial, you know; and I'M going to be a sundial, and not count, the hours I don't like while I'm pulling up weeds, and hoeing potatoes, and picking up stones, and all that. Don't you see?" For a moment the man stared dumbly. Then he threw back his head and laughed. "Well, by George!" he muttered. "By George!" And he laughed again.
But there were intervals of grief beyond all palliation; days when he worked blindly through a grist of tasks that seemed unreal. And at night he sought his room, to sit in darkness, suffering dumbly through the hours. Sometimes Dawn would find him thus. Robert Windham and his family had returned from the Hawaiian Islands.
The slaves at his heels followed dumbly, slaves in thought and action; if their dulled brains ever awoke, it was but to the call of animal appetites; they were incapable of devotion such as Milo's, and as incapable of shock should their obedience fail reward. They passed into the great chamber, and a throaty cry of alarm burst from the giant at the sight of his Sultana prone on the floor.
She sank on the sofa, her breast rising and falling, her gaze dumbly fixed on him, as one under hypnosis. He took the rocker. "I have wanted to tell you how grateful Mrs. Garvin, the boy's mother was for the roses you brought. She doesn't know who sent them, but I intend to tell her, and she will thank you herself. She is living out in the country. And the boy you would scarcely recognize him."
Following came a purely physical weakness; and stumbling across the room he took the seat beside the desk. Unconsciously nervous, restless, his fingers fumbled with the pile of papers before him until they came to a certain one he had buried. Almost as though impelled against his will to do so he spread this one flat before him and sat staring at it, dumbly waiting.
No one came near the room, and after several hours Michael grew aware of hunger and thirst. The time passed, and the desire for food was supplanted by the desire for water. By nightfall the barking and yelping became continuous, changing through the long night hours to whimpering and whining. Michael alone made no sound, suffering dumbly in the bedlam of misery.
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