Lud-in-the-Mist

by Hope Mirrlees

From time to time, terrestrial comets — the blue flash of a kingfisher, the red whisk of a fox — would furrow and thrill the surface of the earth with beauty.

But nonsensical ideas and great practical gifts are sometimes found side by side, and sentimentality is a quality that rarely has the slightest influence on action.

The dew, like lunar daisies, lay thickly on the grassy graves.

The narrow zone of color created by the firelight was like the planet Earth — a little freak of brightness in a universe of impenetrable shadows.