eived
additional clothing, only to appear momentarily more naked thereby.
The vast arch of cloud above was strangely low, and formed as it were
the roof of a large dark cavern, gradually sinking in upon its floor;
for the instinctive thought was that the snow lining the heavens and
that encrusting the earth would soon unite into one mass without any
intervening stratum of air at all.

We turn our attention to the left-hand characteristics; which were
flatness in respect of the river, verticality in respect of the wall
behind it, and darkness as to both. These features made up the mass.
If anything could be darker than the sky, it was the wall, and if any
thing could be gloomier than the wall it was the river beneath. The
indistinct summit of the facade was notched and pronged by chimneys
here and there, and upon its face were faintly signified the oblong
shapes of windows, though only in the upper part. Below, down to the
water's edge, the flat was unbroken by hole or projection.

An indescribable succession of dull blows, perplexing in their
regularity, sent their sound with difficulty through the fluffy
atmosphere. It was a neighbouring clock striking ten. The bell was
in the open air, and being overlaid with several inches of muffling
snow, had lost its voice for the time.

About this hour the snow abated: ten flakes fell where twenty had
fallen, then one had the room of ten. Not long after a form moved
by the brink of the river.

By its outline upon the colourless background, a close observer
might have seen that it was small. This was all that was positively
discoverable, though it seemed human.

The shape went slowly along, but without much exertion, for the snow,
though sudden, was not as yet more than two inches deep. At this
time some words were spoken aloud:--

"One. Two. Three. Four. Five."

Between each utterance the little shape advanced about half a dozen
yards. It was evident now that the windows high in the wall were
being counted. The word "Five" represented the fifth window from the
end of the wall.

Here the spot stopped, and dwindled smaller. The figure was
stooping. Then a morsel of snow flew across the river towards the
fifth window. It smacked against the wall at a point several yards
from its mark. The throw was the idea of a man conjoined with the
execution of a woman. No man who had ever seen bird, rabbit, or
squirrel in his childhood, could possibly have thrown wi