Forced back by hunger, he still lingered upon the window-balcony, looking' up at the hoary riven tower set high above the town on what seems an inaccessible peak, or at the cathedral and its many-coloured campanile.
How could Mallard help comparing these manifestations of ardent temper with what he had witnessed in Cecily?
The resemblance was at moments more than he could endure; once or twice he astonished Elgar with a reply of unprovoked savageness.

The emotions of the day, even more than its bodily exercise, had so wearied him that he went early to bed.

They had a double-bedded room, and Elgar continued talking for hours.

Even without this, Mallard felt that he would have been unable to sleep.

To add to his torments, the clock of the cathedral, which was just on the opposite side of the street, had the terrible southern habit of striking the whole hour after the chime at each quarter; by midnight the clangour was all but incessant.