Chapter XIX 



THE TURN OF THE TIDE 



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OR days past there 

 have been intangible 

 hints of change in earth 

 and air; the birds are silent, 

 and the universal strident note 

 of insect life makes more musical 

 to memory the melodies of the 

 earlier season. The sense of overflowing 

 vitality which pervaded all things a few days 

 ago, when the tide was at the flood, has 

 gone ; the tide has turned, and already one 

 sees the receding movement of the ebb. 

 Through all the vanished months of flower 

 and song, one's thought has travelled fast 

 upon the advancing march of summer, try- 

 ing to keep pace with it as it pushed its 

 fragrant conquest northward ; to-day there 

 is a brief interval of pause before the same 

 thought, following the sunshine, turns south 

 again, and seeks the tropics. A little later 

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