unexplained noise? They could get used to it. After a bit it would no
more wake them up,--such was the force of habit--than the ticking of
the clock. To all this they both agreed, and the matter was dropped.

For ten days they did not mention it, but in all those ten days a sort
of crescendo of emotion was going on in her. At first she began to
think of it as soon as bed-time approached; then she felt it intruding
on her thoughts at the dinner table; then she was unable to sleep for
an hour or two after the fifteen minutes had passed, and, finally, one
night, she fled into his room to find him wide awake, just before
dawn, and to confess that the shadow of midnight was stretched before
and after until it was almost a black circle round the twenty-four
hours.

She knew it was absurd. She had no intention of being driven out of
such a lovely place--BUT--

"See here, dear," he said. "Let's break our rule. We neither of us
want company, but let's, at least, have a big week ender, and perhaps
we can prove to ourselves that our nerves are wrong. One thing is
sure, if you are going to get pale over it, I'll burn the blooming
house down before we'll live in it."

"But you mind it yourself?"

"Not a bit!"

"But you are awake."

"Of course I am, because I know that you are."