"As I felt my way along the wall, I encountered other men who were
coming from the opposite direction, and each time when we hailed each
other I stepped away from the wall to make room for them to pass. But
the third time I did this, when I reached out my hand, the wall had
disappeared, and the further I moved to find it the further I seemed
to be sinking into space. I had the unpleasant conviction that at any
moment I might step over a precipice. Since I had set out, I had
heard no traffic in the street, and now, although I listened some
minutes, I could only distinguish the occasional footfalls of
pedestrians. Several times I called aloud, and once a jocular
gentleman answered me, but only to ask me where I thought he was, and
then even he was swallowed up in the silence. Just above me I could
make out a jet of gas which I guessed came from a street-lamp, and I
moved over to that, and, while I tried to recover my bearings, kept
my hand on the iron post. Except for this nicker of gas, no larger
than the tip of my finger, I could distinguish nothing about me. For
the rest, the mist hung between me and the world like a damp and
heavy blanket.

"I could hear voices, but I could not tell from whence they came, and
the scrape of a foot, moving cautiously, or a muffled cry as someone
stumbled, were the only sounds that reached me.

"I decided that until someone took me in I had best remain where I
was, and it must have been for ten minutes that I waited by the lamp,
straining my ears and hailing distant footfalls. In a house near me
some people were dancing to the music of a Hungarian band. I even
fancied I could hear the windows shake to the rhythm of their feet,
but I could not make out from which part of the compass the sounds