“He was on his way from his bachelor flat to the club, a man of middle age with a slight stoop, an an expression of face firm yet gentle, the blue eyes with light and courage in them, and a faint hint of melancholy - or was it resignation? - about the strong mouth. It was early in April, a slight drizzle of warm rain falling through the coming dusk; but spring was in the air, a bird sang rapturously on a pavement tree. And the man’s heart wakened at the sound, for it was the lift of the year, and low in the western sky above the London roofs there was a band of tender colour.”
-Algernon Blackwood, “The Little Beggar”
Photo: “Little Pear” on Deviant Art
