After that he spoke no more, for his mind began to labour heavily with his coming speech.

His lips kept muttering, his eye wandered, and I began to prepare myself for a second catastrophe.

I tried to think of something to say myself, but my mind was dry as a stone.

The next thing I knew we had drawn up outside a door in a street, and were being welcomed by some noisy gentlemen with rosettes.

The hall had about five hundred in it, women mostly, a lot of bald heads, and a dozen or two young men.