" ...
London! I thinks, with a lurch of my heart. But Richard studies me as I gaze, and smiles unpleasantly.
'Your natural home,' he says. ..." (P.325)
真的被Richard說中了,Maud本來就屬於London,而且是之後她看到的
Lant Street.
"... The gardens are giving way to patches of weed; soon the weed gives way to ditches, the ditches to dark canals, to dreary wastes of road, to mounds of stones or soil or ashes. Still,
Even ashes, I think,
are a part of your freedom - and I feel, despite myself, the kindling in me of a sort of excitement... " (P326)
Ashes應該是London重要元素之一。因工業革命英國大量使用媒炭,所以London的濃霧裡總參雜ashes。所以一吸到參雜ashes的空氣 = 恭喜!你到London啦! 而對Maud來說象徵London的ashes當然也等於FREEDOM!