midday
It was a fanciful woe-begone structure , utterly desolate . The plaster , gnawed away by winds laden with searching sea-moisture , had fallen to earth , exposing the underlying masonry of cheap construction whose rusty colour was the same as that of the ground from which it had arisen , and into which it now seemed ready and eager to descend . Everything useful or portable , everything that spoke of man 's occupation , everything that suggested life and comfort -- the porcelain tiles , woodwork , window-panes , roofings , mosaic or marble floors , leaden pipes -- all this had been carried away long ago . It stood there stark , dismantled , de-humanized , in the midday heat . Here was nothing to charm the eye or conjure up visions of past glory ; nothing elegant or romantic ; nothing savouring of grim warlike purposes . It was a modern ruin ; a pile of rubbish ; a shameless , frivolous skeleton . Those hastily built walls and staring windows wore an air of faded futility , almost of indecency -- as though the mouldering bones of some long-forgotten lady of pleasure had crept out of their tomb to give themselves an airing in the sunshine .