1 The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, into the gloom of overshadowed distances.
2 It was difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding gloom.
3 Only the gloom to the west, brooding over the upper reaches, became more somber every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun.
4 The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.
5 And farther west on the upper reaches the place of the monstrous town was still marked ominously on the sky, a brooding gloom in sunshine, a lurid glare under the stars.
6 All this was in the gloom, while we down there were yet in the sunshine, and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splendor, with a murky and over-shadowed bend above and below.
7 And at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall, the sun sank low, and from glowing white changed to a dull red without rays and without heat, as if about to go out suddenly, stricken to death by the touch of that gloom brooding over a crowd of men.