Presently, as I went on, still gaining velocity, the palpitation of night and day merged into one continuous greyness; the sky took on a wonderful deepness of blue, a splendid luminous color like that of early twilight; the jerking sun became a streak of fire, a brilliant arch, in space; the moon a
fainter fluctuating band; and I could see nothing of the stars, save now and then a brighter circle flickering in the blue.
With that the noises grew
fainter and
fainter, till at last they ceased altogether.
My first knowledge that I was on the wrong trail came when I heard the yells of the pursuing savages suddenly grow
fainter and
fainter far off to my left.
He was still sinking, for the light became
fainter and
fainter until it was a mere glimmer.
A chorus from Olivette, sung in her clear contralto, grew
fainter and
fainter until it ended in the slam of a distant door.
But my hopes have grown
fainter and
fainter, as the years have gone on.
Now it grew louder,
fainter now, and now it altogether died away.
I drag this poor woman from the bosom of her family at a minute's notice, and she goes on getting
fainter and
fainter before my eyes.
The blows of the basement hammer every day grew more and more between; and each blow every day grew
fainter than the last; the wife sat frozen at the window, with tearless eyes, glitteringly gazing into the weeping faces of her children; the bellows fell; the forge choked up with cinders; the house was sold; the mother dived down into the long church-yard grass; her children twice followed her thither; and the houseless, familyless old man staggered off a vagabond in crape; his every woe unreverenced; his grey head a scorn to flaxen curls!
His struggles grew
fainter. I knelt upon his chest, and clasped his brawny throat firmly with both hands.
I came later but not with
fainter zest to the "Aminta" of Tasso, without which, perhaps, the "Pastor Fido" would not have been, and I revelled in the pretty impossibilities of both these charming effects of the liberated imagination.
Bonacieux called a long time; but as such cries, on account of their frequency, brought nobody in the Rue des Fossoyeurs, and as lately the mercer's house had a bad name, finding that nobody came, he went out continuing to call, his voice being heard
fainter and
fainter as he went in the direction of the Rue du Bac.