All gravitated to her and into her
mysterious circle. Maria claimed them. It was certainly her particular
adventure. Only she would share it with them all.
CHAPTER XVI
TIME HALTS
He looked at his watch a second time, and found that it was later than
he had supposed--eleven o'clock. In the act of winding it, however, he
paused; something he had forgotten came back to him, and a curious
smile broke over his face. He stroked his beard, glanced at the
ceiling where the moths still banged and buzzed, then strolled over to
the open window, and said "Hm!" He put his head and shoulders out into
the air. And then he again said "Hm--m--m"--only longer than the first
time. It seemed as if some one answered him. That "Hm" floated off to
some one who was listening for it. Perhaps it was an echo that came
floating back. Perhaps it wasn't.
But any grown-up person who hesitates in an empty room of a country
house at eleven o'clock at night and murmurs "Hm" into the open air is
not in an ordinary state of mind. The normal thing is to put the
lights out and go up more or less briskly to bed. Uncle Felix was no
exception to this rule.
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