Quotation from: The Arrow of Gold

Written by: Joseph Conrad


I wished good-night to these two and left the cafe for the fresh
air and the dark spaciousness of the quays augmented by all the
width of the old Port where between the trails of light the shadows
of heavy hulls appeared very black, merging their outlines in a
great confusion. I left behind me the end of the Cannebiere, a
wide vista of tall houses and much-lighted pavements losing itself
in the distance with an extinction of both shapes and lights. I
slunk past it with only a side glance and sought the dimness of
quiet streets away from the centre of the usual night gaieties of
the town. The dress I wore was just that of a sailor come ashore
from some coaster, a thick blue woollen shirt or rather a sort of
jumper with a knitted cap like a tam-o'-shanter worn very much on
one side and with a red tuft of wool in the centre. This was even
the reason why I had lingered so long in the cafe. I didn't want
to be recognized in the streets in that costume and still less to
be seen entering the house in the street of the Consuls. At that
hour when the performances were over and all the sensible citizens
in their beds I didn't hesitate to cross the Place of the Opera.
It was dark, the audience had already dispersed. The rare passers-
by I met hurrying on their last affairs of the day paid no
attention to me at all. The street of the Consuls I expected to
find empty, as usual at that time of the night. But as I turned a
corner into it I overtook three people who must have belonged to
the locality. To me, somehow, they appeared strange. Two girls in
dark cloaks walked ahead of a tall man in a top hat. I slowed
down, not wishing to pass them by, the more so that the door of the
house was only a few yards distant. But to my intense surprise
those people stopped at it and the man in the top hat, producing a
latchkey, let his two companions through, followed them, and with a
heavy slam cut himself off from my astonished self and the rest of
mankind.

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Old Dominion University CS Dept
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