A few huge drops of rain fell on the hot pavements, then the rain ceased again, and the big splashes dried, as if the stones had been blotting paper that sucked the moisture in.

Then without other warning a streamer of fire split the steeple of St.Agnes's Church, just opposite Mr.
Taynton's house, and the crash of thunder answered it more quickly than his servant had run to open the door to Morris's furious ringing of the bell.

At that the sluices of heaven were opened, and heaven's artillery thundered its salvoes to the flare of the reckless storm.

In the next half-hour a dozen houses in Brighton were struck, while the choked gutters overflowing on to the streets made ravines and waterways down the roadways.

Then the thunder and lightning ceased, but the rain still poured down relentlessly and windlessly, a flood of perpendicular water.
Mr.Taynton had gone out without umbrella, and when he let himself in by his latch-key at his own house-door about half-past eight, it was no wonder that he wrung out his coat and trousers so that he should not soak his Persian rugs.