And in the distance, here and there, standing motionless and in complete silence by the flowing Dapple, were red-roofed villages — the least vain of all fair things, for they never looked at their own reflection in the water, but gazed unblinkingly at the horizon. And there were ruined castles covered with ivy — the badge of the old order, clinging to its own; and into the ivy doves dived, seeming to leave in their wake a trail of amethyst, just as a clump of bottle-green leaves is shot with purple by the knowledge that it hides violets. And the round towers of the castles looked as if they
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