But he stirred not , no more than if changed to marble . `` It is the Seeker , '' whispered Hannah , convulsively grasping her husband 's arm . `` Matthew , he is dead . '' `` The joy of success has killed him , '' replied Matthew , trembling violently . `` Or perhaps the very light of the Great Carbuncle was death . '' '' ` The Great Carbuncle ' ! '' cried a peevish voice behind them . `` The great humbug ! If you have found it , prithee point it out to me . '' They turned their heads , and there was the cynic with his prodigious spectacles set carefully on his nose , staring now at the lake , now at the rocks , now at the distant masses of vapor , now right at the Great Carbuncle itself , yet seemingly as unconscious of its light as if all the scattered clouds were condensed about his person . Though its radiance actually threw the shadow of the unbeliever at his own feet as he turned his back upon the glorious jewel , he would not be convinced that there was the least glimmer there . `` Where is your great humbug ? '' he repeated . `` I challenge you to make me see it . '' `` There ! '' said Matthew , incensed at such perverse blindness , and turning the cynic round toward the illuminated cliff . `` Take off those abominable spectacles , and you can not help seeing it . '' Now , these colored spectacles probably darkened the cynic 's sight in at least as great a degree as the smoked glasses through which people gaze at an eclipse . With resolute bravado , however , he snatched them from his nose and fixed a bold stare full upon the ruddy blaze of the Great Carbuncle . But scarcely had he encountered it when , with a deep , shuddering groan , he dropped his head and pressed both hands across his miserable eyes .
Thenceforth there was in very truth no light of the Great Carbuncle , nor any other light on earth , nor light XXXXX heaven itself , for the poor cynic .
Though With across as at behind of to toward upon