Digital heart book

I had
discovered a new slum, a place of precarious sandy
cliffs, deep sandy cuttings, solitary ancient houses,
and the butt-ends of streets. It was already
environed. The ranks of the street-lamps threaded it
unbroken. The city, upon all sides of it, was tightly
packed, and growled with traffic. To-day, I do not
doubt the very landmarks are all swept away; but it
offered then, within narrow limits, a delightful peace,
and (in the morning, when I chiefly went there) a
seclusion almost rural. On a steep sandhill in this
neighbourhood toppled, on the most insecure foundation,
a certain row of houses, each with a bit of garden, and
all (I have to presume) inhabited. Thither I used to
mount by a crumbling footpath, and in front of the last
of the houses would sit down to sketch.
The very first day I saw I was observed out of the
ground-floor window by a youngish, good-looking fellow,
prematurely bald, and with an expression both lively
and engaging. The second, as we were still the only
figures in the landscape, it was no more than natural
that we should nod.


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