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Page 23:-
with their hands in their pockets and their backs towards
me."
"Brother Francis, brother Francis," cried Thomas Idle, "what
do you make out from the turret, of the expression of the
two men with their hands in their pockets and their backs
towards you?"
"They are mysterious men," said Brother Francis, "with
inscrutable backs. They keep their backs towards me with
persistency. If one turns an inch in any direction, the
other turns an inch in the same direction, and no more. They
turn very stiffly, on a very little pivot, in the middle of
the market-place. Their appearance is partly of a mining,
partly of a ploughing, partly of a stable, character. They
are looking at nothing - very hard. Their backs are
slouched, and their legs are curved with much standing
about. Their pockets are loose and dog's-eared, on account
of their hands being always in them. They stand to be rained
upon, without any movement of impatience or dissatisfaction,
and they keep so close together that an elbow of each
jostles an elbow of the other, but they never speak. They
spit at times, but speak not. I see it growing darker and
darker, and I still see them, sole visible population of the
place, standing to be rained upon with their backs towards
me, and looking at nothing very hard,"
"Brother Francis, brother Francis," cried Thomas Idle,
"before you draw down the blind of the turret and come in to
have your head scorched by the hot gas, see if you can, and
impart to me, something of the expression of those two
amazing men."
"The murky shadows," said Francis Goodchild, "are gathering
fast; and the wings of evening, and the wings of coal, are
folding over Wigton. Still, they look at nothing very hard,
with their backs towards me. Ah! Now, they turn, and I see
-"
"Brother Francis, brother Francis," cried Thomas Idle, "tell
me quickly what you see of the two men of Wigton!"
"I see," said Francis Goodchild, "that they have no
expression at all. And now the town goes to sleep, undazzled
by the large unlighted lamp in the market-place; and let no
man wake it."
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