A sudden sense of disappointment overcame Clarence.

It looked vulgar, common, and worse than all--FAMILIAR.

It was like the unlovely outskirts of a dozen other prosaic settlements he had seen in less romantic localities.

In that muddy red stream, pouring out of a wooden gutter, in which three or four bearded, slouching, half-naked figures were raking like chiffonniers, there was nothing to suggest the royal metal.

Yet he was so absorbed in gazing at the scene, and had walked so rapidly during the past few minutes, that he was startled, on turning a sharp corner of the road, to come abruptly upon an outlying dwelling.
It was a nondescript building, half canvas and half boards.