The day had been very hot even for the Transvaal, where the days still know how to be hot in the autumn, although the neck of the summer is broken-especially when the thunderstorms hold off for a week or two, as they do occasionally. Even the succulent blue lilies-a variety of the agapanthus which is so familiar to us in English greenhouses-hung their long trumpet-shaped flowers and looked oppressed and miserable, beneath the burning breath of the hot wind which had been blowing for hours like the draught from a volcano. ...
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The day had been very hot even for the Transvaal, where the days still know how to be hot in the autumn, although the neck of the summer is broken-especially when the thunderstorms hold off for a week or two, as they do occasionally. Even the succulent blue lilies-a variety of the agapanthus which is so familiar to us in English greenhouses-hung their long trumpet-shaped flowers and looked oppressed and miserable, beneath the burning breath of the hot wind which had been blowing for hours like the draught from a volcano. The grass, too, near the wide roadway that stretched in a feeble and indeterminate fashion across the veldt, forking, branching, and reuniting like the veins on a lady's arm, was completely coated over with a thick layer of red dust. But the hot wind was going down now, as it always does towards sunset. Indeed, all that remained of it were a few strictly local and miniature whirlwinds, which would suddenly spring up on the road itself, and twist and twirl fiercely round, raising a mighty column of dust fifty feet or more into the air, where it hung long after the wind had passed, and then slowly dissolved as its particles floated to the earth. Advancing along the road, in the immediate track of one of these desultory and inexplicable whirlwinds, was a man on horseback. The man looked limp and dirty, and the horse limper and dirtier. The hot wind had "taken all the bones out of them," as the Kafirs say, which was not very much to be wondered at, seeing that they had been journeying through it for the last four hours without off-saddling. Suddenly the whirlwind, which had been travelling along smartly, halted, and the dust, after revolving a few times in the air like a dying top, slowly began to disperse in the accustomed fashion. The man on the horse halted also, and contemplated it in an absent kind of way. "It's just like a man's life," he said aloud to his horse, "coming from nobody knows where, nobody knows why, and making a little column of dust on the world's highway, then passing away, leaving the dust to fall to the ground again, to be trodden under foot and forgotten." The speaker, a stout, well set-up, rather ugly man, apparently on the wrong side of thirty, with pleasant blue eyes and a reddish peaked beard, laughed a little at his own sententious reflection, and then gave his jaded horse a tap with the sjambock in his hand.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Ex library book, usual markings. Hardback (1918 edition). Some discolouring to page edges due to age. Clean copy, sound binding. Quick dispatch from UK seller.
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Seller's Description:
Fair. Ex-library book, usual markings. Hardback with dust cover. Well read copy with some spine wear. Colouring of page edges due to age. Quick dispatch from UK seller.
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Seller's Description:
Fair. Ex-library book, usual markings. Hardback with dust cover. Well read copy, some spine wear, still very useable, colouring of page edges due to age. Quick dispatch from UK seller.
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PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
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Seller's Description:
Used-Very Good. VG hardback in Good dustjacket. Owner's address stamp and 'Take care of this Book' stamp on title page. The dustjacket was reinforced with a blue paper backing many years ago and this is probably the only reason it has survived as well as it has. The jacket spine is a little stained but the colour pictorial front panel is quite nice; the slightest loss to front jacket flap edge and the price on jacket spine, front and rear panels has been neatly cut out.
