It must have seemed a strange taste; but--ah, me!--there had bloomed for me for one short hour the flowers of paradise.
The thick, soft gloom was deeper on the pier.

I remember that, as I walked down, I heard from the church clocks the hour of eight.

All along the coast there was a line of light; the town was brilliantly lighted, and when I looked across the waters the West Pier was in all its radiance; the sound of the music floated over the waves to me, the light of the colored lamps shone far and wide.

I could see the moving mass of people; here I was almost alone.

I saw a gentleman smoking a cigar, I saw the inevitable lovers, I saw an old man with an iron face, I saw two young men, almost boys--what had brought them there I could not think.
I reached the pier-head, where the huge lamp had been lighted and shone like a great brilliant jewel.