It cannot end like that!" "What was that ?" He stopped, stricken rigid.
The trembling of the windows had begun again, and then had come a thud--a vast concussion that shook the house.

The concussion seemed to last for an age.

It must have been very near.

For a moment it seemed that something had struck the house above him--an enormous impact that broke into a tinkle of falling glass, and then a stillness that ended at last with a minute clear sound of running feet in the street below.
Those feet released him from his rigor.

He turned towards the window, and saw it starred and broken.
His heart beat high with a sense of crisis, of conclusive occurrence, of release.