Captain Runacles took down this telescope and tucked it under his
arm. Then, unhitching a dressing-gown of faded purple from a peg
behind the door, he turned the lamp low again and stepped out upon
the landing. Here he paused for a minute and listened. The house
was still. From the floor below ascended the sound of breathing,
regular and stertorous, which proved that Simeon was asleep.
He put his hand on the stair-rail and ascended to the next floor,
passing his daughter's room on tiptoe. Above this, a flight of steps
that was little more than a ladder led up into the obscurity of the
attics. He climbed these steps, and, entering a lumber-room, where
he had to duck his head to avoid striking the sloping roof, felt his
way to a shuttered window, with the bolt of which he fumbled for a
moment. When at length he drew the shutter open, a whiff of cold air
streamed into the room and a parallelogram of purple sky was visible,
studded with stars and crossed by the bars of a little balcony.
Captain Runacles stepped out upon this balcony. He had constructed
it two years before, and it ran completely round the roof. Under his
feet he heard the pigeons murmuring in their cote. Below were spread
the dim grass-plots and flower-beds of the two gardens; and, far upon
his right, the misty leagues of the North Sea.
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