And in a while being summoned by Peterby, he sighed and, rising,
went down to his solitary breakfast.
CHAPTER LXXV
WHICH TELLS WHY BARNABAS FORGOT HIS BREAKFAST
It was a slender little shoe, and solitary, for fellow it had none,
and it lay exactly in the middle of the window-seat; moreover, to
the casual observer, it was quite an ordinary little shoe, ordinary,
be it understood, in all but its size.
Why, then, should Barnabas, chancing to catch sight of so ordinary
an object, start up from his breakfast (ham and eggs, and fragrant
coffee) and crossing the room with hasty step, pause to look down at
this small and lonely object that lay so exactly in the middle of
the long, deep window-seat? Why should his hand shake as he stooped
and took it up? Why should the color deepen in his pale cheek?
And all this because of a solitary little shoe! A quite ordinary
little shoe--to the casual observer! Oh, thou Casual Observer who
seeing so much, yet notices and takes heed to so little beyond thy
puny self! To whom the fairest prospect is but so much earth and so
much timber! To whom music is but an arrangement of harmonious sounds,
and man himself but a being erect upon two legs! Oh, thou Casual
Observer, what a dull, gross, self-contented clod art thou, who,
having eyes and ears, art blind and deaf to aught but things as
concrete as--thyself!
But for this shoe, it, being something worn, yet preserved the mould
of the little foot that had trodden it, a slender, coquettish little
foot, a shapely, active little foot: a foot, perchance, to trip it
gay and lightly to a melody, or hurry, swift, untiring, upon some
errand of mercy.
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