Chapter 2: From Ten to Half-Past Eleven P.m

⁠​​​‌​​​​​‌​​​​‌​​​​‌‌​​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌​‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​‌​​​​‌​​⁠A strange concurrence of phenomena now confronts us.

During the autumn in which the past scenes were enacted, Mr. Springrove had ploughed, harrowed, and cleaned a narrow and shaded piece of ground, lying at the back of his house, which for many years had been looked upon as irreclaimable waste.

The couch-grass extracted from the soil had been left to wither in the sun; afterwards it was raked togeth