But supposeRachel was going away in

Lying on a sofa and looking at the ceiling, perhaps. He couldimagine her doing that, and Helen in an arm-chair, with her handson the arm of it, so--looking ahead of her, with her great big eyes--oh no, they'd be talking, of course, about the dance. But supposeRachel was going away in a day or two, suppose this was the endof her visit, and her father had arrived in one of the steamersanchored in the bay,--it was intolerable to know so little. 　　Therefore he exclaimed, "How d'you know what you feel, Hirst?" to stophimself from thinking. 　　But Hirst did not help him, and the other people with their aimlessmovements and their unknown lives were disturbing, so that he longedfor the empty darkness. The first thing he looked for when he steppedout of the hall door was the light of the Ambroses' villa. When hehad definitely decided that a certain light apart from the othershigher up the hill was their light, he was considerably reassured. 　　There seemed to be at once a little stability in all this incoherence. 　　Without any definite plan in his head, he took the turning to the rightand walked through the town and came to the wall by the meetingof the roads, where he stopped. The booming of the sea was audible. 　　The dark-blue mass of the mountains rose against the paler blueof the sky. There was no moon, but myriads of stars, and lightswere anchored up and down in the dark waves of earth all round him. 　　He had meant to go back, but the single light of the Ambroses' 　　villa had now become three separate lights, and he was tempted to go on. 　　He might as well make sure that Rachel was still there. Walking fast,he soon stood by the iron gate of their garden, and pushed it open;the outline of the house suddenly appeared sharply before his eyes,and the thin column of the verandah cutting across the palely litgravel of the terrace. He hesitated. At the back of the housesome one was rattling cans. He approached the front; the light onthe terrace showed him that the sitting-rooms were on that side. 　　He stood as near the light as he could by the corner of the house,the leaves of a creeper brushing his face. After a moment he couldhear a voice. The voice went on steadily; it was not talking,but from the continuity of the sound it was a voice reading aloud.