In a few months I should find myself still in need of refuge, but without the means of paying for it.

What would become of me then?
Very slowly the winter wore on.

How shall I describe the peaceful monotony, the dull, lonely safety of those dark days and long nights?
I had been violently tossed from a life of extreme trouble and peril into a profound, unbroken, sleepy security.

At first the sudden change stupefied me; but after a while there came over me an uneasy restlessness, a longing to get away from the silence and solitude, even if it were into insecurity and danger.

I began to wonder how the world beyond the little island was going on.