He had never seen the like.

But Tilda had recovered all her courage.
"This," she assured him, "is a little bit of all right," and taking his hand, led him down the slope and posted him in the shadow of a thorn-bush.
"Wait here," she enjoined; and he waited, while she descended cautiously towards the roundabout with its revolving mirrors.
He lost sight of her.

He lay still where she had commanded him to lie, watching the many twinkling lights, watching the roundabout turn and flash and come to a stop, watching the horseplay of boys and maidens as one set clambered off laughing and another pressed forward into their places.

The tune droned in his ears, came to an end, went on again.
He drowsed to its recurrent beat.

From his couch in the wet shadow he gazed up at the stars riding overhead, above the elms.
At the end of twenty minutes Tilda stole back to him; and, softly though she came, her footfall woke him out of his dreams with a start.
Yet, and though he could barely discern her from the shadow of the thorn-bush, he knew on the instant that she brought disappointment.
"What's the matter ?" he asked.
"Everything's the matter.