"Bram Stoker - Dracula's Guest" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

struck me that it was considerably colder than it had been at
the commencement of my walk--a sort of sighing sound seemed
to be around me with, now and then, high overhead, a sort of
muffled roar. Looking upwards I noticed that great thick
clouds were drafting rapidly across the sky from north to
south at a great height.There were signs of a coming storm in
some lofty stratum of the air. I was a little chilly, and,
thinking that it was the sitting still after the exercise of
walking, I resumed my journey.

The ground I passed over was now much more picturesque.
There were no striking objects that the eye might single out,
but in all there was a charm of beauty.I took little heed of
time, and it was only when the deepening twilight forced it-
self upon me that I began to think of how I should find my
way home. The air was cold, and the drifting of clouds high
overhead was more marked. They were accompanied by a sort of
far away rushing sound, through which seemed to come at inter-
vals that mysterious cry which the driver had said came from
a wolf. For a while I hesitated. I had said I would see the
deserted village, so on I went and presently came on a wide
stretch of open country, shut in by hills all around. Their
sides were covered with trees which spread down to the plain,
dotting in clumps the gentler slopes and hollows which showed
here and there.I followed with my eye the winding of the road
and saw that it curved close to one of the densest of these
clumps and was lost behind it.

As I looked there came a cold shiver in the air, and the
snow began to fall. I thought of the miles and miles of bleak
country I had passed, and then hurried on to seek shelter of
the wood in front. Darker and darker grew the sky, and faster
and heavier fell the snow, till the earth before and around
me was a glistening white carpet the further edge of which
was lost in misty vagueness. The road was here but crude, and
when on the level its boundaries were not so marked as when
it passed through the cuttings; and in a little while I found
that I must have strayed from it, for I missed underfoot the
hard surface, and my feet sank deeper in the grass and moss.
Then the wind grew stronger and blew with ever increasing
force, till I was fain to run before it. The air became icy-
cold, and in spite of my exercise I began to suffer. The snow
was now falling so thickly and whirling around me in such rap-
id eddies that I could hardly keep my eyes open. Every now
and then the heavens were torn asunder by vivid lightning,
and in the flashes I could see ahead of me a great mass of
trees, chiefly yew and cypress all heavily coated with snow.

I was soon amongst the shelter of the trees, and there in
comparative silence I could hear the rush of the wind high