midday
And down in Nick 's plucky young English heart there came a spark like that which burns in the soul of a mariner when for the first time an unknown ocean rolls before his eyes . So he rode on bravely , filled with a sense of daring and the thrill of perils more remote than Master Carew 's altogether too adjacent poniard , as well as with a sturdy determination to escape at the first opportunity , in spite of all the master-player 's threats . Up Highgate Hill they rattled in a bracing northeast wind , the rugged country bowling back against the tumbled sky . Far to south a rusty haze had gloomed against the sun like a midday fog , mile after mile ; and suddenly , as they topped the range and cleared the last low hill , they saw a city in the south spreading away until it seemed to Nick to girdle half the world and to veil the sky in a reek of murky sea-coal smoke . `` There ! '' said Carew , reining in the gray , as Nick looked up and felt his heart almost stand still ; `` since Parma burned old Antwerp , and the Low Countries are dead , there lies the market-heart of all the big round world ! '' `` London ! ''