Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 26, 1897 - Romances, Volume VII

THE GREAT NORTH ROAD
doomed to the clumsy and the servile, the other
born to beauty.
She thought of the golden zones in which gentle-
men were bred, and figured with so excellent a
grace; zones in which wisdom and smooth words,
white linen and slim hands, were the mark of the
desired inhabitants ; where low temptations were
unknown, and honesty no virtue, but a thing as
natural as breathing.
CHAPTER IV
MINGLING THREADS
It was nearly seven before Mr. Archer left his apart-
ment. On the landing he found another door beside
his own opening on a roofless corridor, and presently
he was walking on the top of the ruins. On one
hand he could look down a good depth into the
green courtyard ; on the other his eye roved along
the downward course of the river, the wet woods
all smoking, the shadows long and blue, the mists
golden and rosy in the sun, here and there the water
flashing across an obstacle. His heart expanded and
softened to a grateful melancholy, and with his eye
fixed upon the distance, and no thought of present
danger, he continued to stroll along the elevated and
treacherous promenade.
A terror-stricken cry rose to him from the court-
yard. He looked down, and saw in a glimpse Nance
standing below with hands clasped in horror and his
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