entire environs of the city at my disposal; as yet, there was no degree of
cold worth speaking of in the weather.

And outside there the sea rocked in drowsy rest; ships and clumsy,
broad-nosed prams ploughed graves in its bluish surface, and scattered
rays to the right and left, and glided on, whilst the smoke rolled up in
downy masses from the chimney-stacks, and the stroke of the engine pistons
pierced the clammy air with a dull sound. There was no sun and no wind;
the trees behind me were almost wet, and the seat upon which I sat was
cold and damp.

Time went. I settled down to doze, waxed tired, and a little shiver ran
down my back. A while after I felt that my eyelids began to droop, and I
let them droop....

When I awoke it was dark all around me. I started up, bewildered and
freezing. I seized my parcel and commenced to walk. I went faster and
faster in order to get warm, slapped my arms, chafed my legs--which by now
I could hardly feel under me--and thus reached the watch-house of the fire
brigade. It was nine o'clock; I had been asleep for several hours.

Whatever shall I do with myself? I must go to some place. I stand there
and stare up at the watch-house, and query if it would not be possible to
succeed in getting into one of the passages if I were to watch for a
moment when the watchman's back was turned. I ascend the steps, and
prepare to open a conversation with the man. He lifts his ax in salute,
and waits for what I may have to say. The uplifted ax, with its edge
turned against me, darts like a cold slash through my nerves. I stand dumb
with terror before this armed man, and draw involuntarily back. I say
nothing, only glide farther and farther away from him. To save appearances