Excerpt from Robin Brilliant Thomas Pharo made his difficult way up the steep street of the village. He was going to Lamzed's, but the frantic east wind full in his teeth and eyes seemed to blow him back two steps for every one he took. It was a December day and one of absolute mutiny. Even the delicate beauty of the bared trees had taken on some aspect of weirdness. On the laced branches birds sat in couples, in trios, in moody clusters. Now and then one alone, a solitary, drearily-flitting thing, crossed from one tree to the other, or flew low across the dull fields. This external dreariness did not affect Pharo. He had seen it, in due season, from his birth. He never questioned or resented or wondered. He felt no grudge for winter, no gratitude to spring. The pageant of many years had slid before his eyes, which remained indifferent. He only knew that the wind was cold, and he turned up the collar of his frayed black coat and bent his head. The winding village street fell back behind him - the irregular street, where the malthouse raised its shoulders, and the new cottages, asserting themselves impudently between their elders, stuck forth red faces. He turned the comer by the doctor's - a plainly-built old house veined all over the sober walls with leafless creepers. The last bit of rise to Lamzed's shop was the steepest in the village; it was emblematic of Lamzed's social altitude. The position of grocer and postmaster, added to that of Chairman of the Parish Council, ranked barely below that of parson or doctor. Pharo climbed up. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.