lid of a box

LETITIA. [In great agitation.] I'll go home right now and see to him! [Exit.]
It was magnificent to see her adjust his sling.
Her colossal vanity triumphed over her natural astuteness.
When he was gone she still stood there, her chin on her breast--she who cared for nothing,
believed in nothing--with the sound in her ears of cheering, of hurrying feet, and voices;
stood, in the centre of a pattern made by fragments of the torn-up notes,
staring out into the moonlight, seeing, not this hated room and the hated square outside,
but a German orchard, and herself, a little girl, plucking apples, a big dog beside her;
a hundred other pictures, too, such as the drowning see.
Put the forefinger of your right hand through the leading reins, and the third finger
between the wheel reins, feel your wheel horses' mouths lightly,
take your near side reins a little shorter than your off,
so that in case your horses attempt to start before you are properly seated,
you have the reins all of the same length, and, being properly separated,
you can put them into your left hand as quickly as possible,
and at once have your horses under control; this will, if attended to,
always prevent accidents.
There's nothing I'm afraid of like scared people.
For here the water presents gorgeous, plastic color, alternating blue and gold.
Between the grey of the rocks and the green of the grass there was a fringe of sea-pinks.
I had a strange dream that night after the fire, which made a lasting impression upon me.
Barracks Isle was a green expanse, flat as a table, and covered with the short grass
that grows by the sea. At high tide it was surrounded by water, but when the tide was low,
it rested on great grey, rugged rocks, as the lid of a box rests upon its sides.
Between the grey of the rocks and the green of the grass there was a fringe of sea-pinks.
That night I dreamt that I was under Barracks Isle, and it was a great bare cave,
not very high, and lighted by torches which people held in their hands.
Between the grey of the rocks and the green of the grass there was a fringe of sea-pinks.
There were a number of people, and they were all members of my own family,
ancestors in the dresses of their day, distant relations -- numbers of strange people
whom I had never heard of; as well as my own father and mother, brothers.
Between the grey of the rocks and the green of the grass there was a fringe of sea-pinks.
I knew I was under Barracks Isle, but I knew also that it was the dark space
beneath the stage of a theatre. When I entered, the rest of my family were already assembled;
but they none of them spoke to each other, and the doors kept opening and shutting,
and the people seemed to melt away, until at last only three or four remained, and they were just going.
Between the grey of the rocks and the green of the grass there was a fringe of sea-pinks.
I saw the shine on the paint of the door-posts, and the smoke of the torches, as they let themselves out.
Then they had all gone, and left me alone in a cave full of smoke. Vainly I struggled to follow them,
the doors were fast, the smoke was smothering me, and in the agony of a last effort to escape I awoke.
That's the way I came to be so courageous.