Not Without Thorns

La danse au piano est ou tres-charmante ou tres-ennuyeuse, selon le sort. A foggy evening in early December. Fogs are quick to gather and slow to disperse in the heavily laden air surrounding an assemblage of tall chimneys; and the manufacturing town of Wareborough, low-lying and flat, seemed to have a special attraction for them. Unprepossessing at its best, Wareborough was peculiarly so at this season and in such weather; it would, indeed, have been difficult to choose a day on which it could have less favourably impressed a stranger than the one just drawing drearily to a close. There was a good deal of confusion in the streets, for the fog greatly impeded the traffic."