No glimmer of light was anywhere visible.
He had his habits like another, and one of them was to sleep without blinds or curtains drawn.

His present deflection from this habit made him restless; he was tired, he wished above all things to sleep, but sleep would not come.

He turned from one side to the other, he punched his pillows, he tried to sleep with his head low, and when that failed with his head high.
He resigned himself in the end to a sleepless night, and lying in his bed drew some comfort from the sound of voices and the tread of feet in the passages and the rooms about him.

These, at all events, were companionable, and they assured him of safety.

But in a while they ceased, and he was left in a silence as absolute as the darkness.