The Announcement

They came, the brothers, and took two chairs

In their usual quiet way;

And for a time we did not think

They had much to say.

And they began and talked awhile

Of ordinary things,

Till spread that silence in the room

A pent thought brings.

And then they said: "The end has come.

Yes: it has come at last."

And we looked down, and knew that day

A spirit had passed.

A quote from a Hardy novel

“Little towns are like little children in this respect, that they interest most when they are enacting native peculiarities unconscious of beholders. Discovering themselves to be watched they attempt to be entertaining by putting on an antic, and produce disagreeable caricatures which spoil them.” (Desperate Remedies)

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