The candles on the mantelpiece were lighted and their gleam fell through the balcony-door over the square, as it had done every evening since the house was built.  
Outside, the square shone with a thousand lights. There was a sound of carriages, but at a distance, for the house was thrust a long way back and its walls were as thick as the walls of a castle.
 
And, when time passed and night came, the noise died away and you could hear the rippling of the fountain, which never begins and never stops, and cries, no one knowing what they are, solitary steps that approach and retreat again.
 
[141]Cordt stood by the fireplace of the empty room.
 
He stared at the places where the quaint old things had stood which had seen his race pass through the room.
 
He remembered every single piece that had been brought there and looked at the empty spot where each had stood. He............