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CHAPTER XI. 



AN UNLUCKY DAY. 



IF not accustomed to such things, you find it rather 

 strange on awaking in the night to hear almost to 

 feel, so near it is to you the continued patter of the 

 rain-drops on the shingle roof not many inches above 

 your cheek. As I turned in my warm bed, and wound 

 myself still deeper into the dense fragrant mass that 

 composed it, I heard the gentle falling of the rain 

 just above my face, and grumbling inwardly at the 

 unfavourable morrow it foretokened, again fell fast 

 asleep. 



I should have been much better pleased had it- 

 come down in a good shower, rattling on the shingles 

 as though about to shake them all to pieces, instead 

 of that dull, monotonous, sluggish drizzle, which 

 might continue any number of hours. The moment 

 of half- waking consciousness was just long enough for 

 the discontented thought. 



When I next woke it was at the sound of the quar- 



