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SKETCHES. F 307
peeped forth; it blew, then it became calm, the sky bright-
ened and darkened, darkened and brightened, exactly as in
the daily repeated comedy of “ Love’s Quarrel,” or in life’s
great wonderful drama. A sudden severe hailstorm com-
ing on, I saw the pedestrians in the street, leading into the
square, rushing about in wild dismay seeking a shelter from
the pelting hailstones. A young servant-maid, walking
rather more upon her dress than upon the stones of the
street, came ruuning with a jug full of cream and a basket
with bread in her hands, stumbled, spilt the contents of the
one and dropped what was contained in the other, all for
the benefit of a lean dog, who, poor animal, to judge from
his insensibility to the hailstones, must have been accus-
tomed to take his meals under the accompaniment of kicks
—the good with the bad. With light boots and a woeful
countenance, an elegant gentleman skipped across the
street to a house, out of whose window a young lady
seemed compassionately to contemplate the sorely beset
hero, who, with his eyes fixed upon her, and blind as the
little God of Love, rushed into the arms of a stout “ Mad-
am,” who, in her innocence, surely did not think of envel-
oping in her cloak any body else than her own fat self and
her basket full of gingerbread.
’ Here a woman, with a child in her arms, was hastening
towards her home. She unfastened the handkerchief upon
her head, in order to wrap it round the child. Mercilessly
the hail was battering against her brown curls, while in
front of her two gentlemen were butting at each other with
their umbrellas, swearing at each other in their blindness
and hurry. An ancient horse was philosophically shaking
his shaggy head at the unwonted noise, and being left to
manage it according to his own pleasure, for himself and
for the old friend to which he was harnessed, —a cart, shaky
from old age and long service, — he found himself at last
induced to do as other people, to drag his appendix and
himself, with bent head and drooping ears, into an open
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