Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/310

272 beyond the common-place "thank you." and to quote the Poet's exquisite description of how Geraint, when waited on by Enid, was moved

To stoop and kiss the tender little thumb That crossed the platter as she laid it down,"

and to suit the action to the wordan audacious liberty for which, I feel bound to report, he was not duly reprimanded.

As no topic of conversation seemed to occur to any one, and as we were, all four, on those delightful terms with one another (the only terms, I think, on which any friendship, that deserves the name of intimacy, can be maintained) which involve no sort of necessity for speaking for mere speaking's sake, we sat in silence for some minutes.

At length I broke the silence by asking "Is there any fresh news from the harbour about the Fever?"

"None since this morning," the Earl said, looking very grave. "But that was alarming enough. The Fever is spreading fast: the London doctor has taken fright and left the place, and the only one now available isn't a