Book Two The Education of a Personage Chapter 5 The Egotist Becomes a Personage

"A fathom deep in sleep I lie 
With old desires, restrained before, 
To clamor lifeward with a cry, 
As dark flies out the greying door; 
And so in quest of creeds to share 
I seek assertive day again... 
But old monotony is there: 
Endless avenues of rain.

Oh, might I rise again! Might I 
Throw off the heat of that old wine, 
See the new morning mass the sky 
With fairy towers, line on line; 
Find each mirage in the high air 
A symbol, not a dream again... 
But old monotony is there: 
Endless avenues of rain."

Under the glass portcullis of a theatre Amory stood, watching the first great drops of rain splatter down and flatten to dark stains on the sidewalk. The air became gray and opalescent; a solitary light suddenly outlined a window over the way; then another light; then a hundred more danced and glimmered into vision. Under his feet a thick, iron-studded skylight turned yellow; in the street the lamps of the taxi-cabs sent out glistening sheens along the already black pavement. The unwelcome November rain had perversely stolen the day's last hour and pawned it with that ancient fence, the night.

The silence of the theatre behind him ended with a curious snapping sound, followed by the heavy roaring of a rising crowd and the interlaced clatter of many voices. The matinee was over.