'
'The terrace, sir, has no other outlet, and the walls are too high for
a lady to jump down.'
'Well, sir, give me the key.'
Mr Glowry took the key, searched every nook of the tower, and
returned.
'You are a fox, Scythrop; you are an exceedingly cunning fox, with
that demure visage of yours. What was that lumbering sound I heard
before you opened the door?'
'Sound, sir?'
'Yes, sir, sound.'
'My dear sir, I am not aware of any sound, except my great table,
which I moved on rising to let you in.'
'The table!--let me see that. No, sir; not a tenth part heavy enough,
not a tenth part.'
'But, sir, you do not consider the laws of acoustics: a whisper
becomes a peal of thunder in the focus of reverberation. Allow me to
explain this: sounds striking on concave surfaces are reflected from
them, and, after reflection, converge to points which are the foci of
these surfaces. It follows, therefore, that the ear may be so placed
in one, as that it shall hear a sound better than when situated nearer
to the point of the first impulse: again, in the case of two concave
surfaces placed opposite to each other--'
'Nonsense, sir. Don't tell me of foci. Pray, sir, will concave
surfaces produce two voices when nobody speaks? I heard two voices,
and one was feminine; feminine, sir: what say you to that?'
'Oh, sir, I perceive your mistake: I am writing a tragedy, and was
acting over a scene to myself.
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