Excerpt from Pan Michael: An Historical Novel At such moments his face was full of mischievous fun. It was evident that the soldier was of a gay disposition and in his bachelor days had had many a frolic. The silence of the garden was broken only by the fall to the ground of the over-ripe fruit and the hum of insects. It was early in September and the weather was beautiful. The extreme heat of the sun had abated, but the golden glow was still ample. In the sunlight rosy apples were glistening among the grey leaves in such numbers as to conceal the boughs. The branches of the plum-trees were bending under the weight of the fruit covered with greyish gum. The least motion of the air was shown by the spider-webs hanging from the trees; they were swaying in a faint breeze that scarcely moved the leaves. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.