He felt that he was lying in a soft slimy bog, and springing up he set his fool on the corner of a cold hard flagstone.

"Thank you," he said, grateful to have landed on a soft Jew rather than hard flagstone.

In a flash of metal, the thinking machine plummeted four stories to slam into the hard flagstones, not far from the bloodstain left by the dead child.

They had endured discomfort and boredom on the hard flagstones, and by now were ripe for the entertainment to begin.

On long nights on the hard flagstones he had dreamed of women like her.

Eleanor's knees ached from kneeling on the hard flagstones.