At any rate by the beginning of October we were settled in an apartment on the edge of the park and a stone's throw from the palace.

Some weeks of quickened energy and more rapid work followed--and the pleasures of that chill golden autumn are reflected in the later chapters of the book.

Each sunny day was more magnificent than the last.

Yet there was no warmth in the magnificence.

The wind was strangely bitter; it was winter before the time.