All that evening the clouds gathered, until they closed entirely overthe blue of the sky. They seemed to narrow the space between earthand heaven, so that there was no room for the air to move in freely;and the waves, too, lay flat, and yet rigid, as if they were restrained.
The leaves on the bushes and trees in the garden hung closely together,and the feeling of pressure and restraint was increased by the shortchirping sounds which came from birds and insects.
So strange were the lights and the silence that the busy humof voices which usually filled the dining-room at meal timeshad distinct gaps in it, and during these silences the clatterof the knives upon plates became audible. The first roll of thunderand the first heavy drop striking the pane caused a little stir.
"It's coming!" was said simultaneously in many different languages.
There was then a profound silence, as if the thunder had withdrawninto itself. People had just begun to eat again, when a gust of coldair came through the open windows, lifting tablecloths and skirts,a light flashed, and was instantly followed by a clap of thunderright over the hotel. The rain swished with it, and immediatelythere were all those sounds of windows being shut and doors slammingviolently which accompany a storm.
The room grew suddenly several degrees darker, for the windseemed to be driving waves of darkness across the earth. No oneattempted to eat for a time, but sat looking out at the garden,with their forks in the air. The flashes now came frequently,lighting up faces as if they were going to be photographed,surprising them in tense and unnatural expressions. The clapfollowed close and violently upon them. Several women half rosefrom their chairs and then sat down again, but dinner was continueduneasily with eyes upon the garden. The bushes outside wereruffled and whitened, and the wind pressed upon them so that theyseemed to stoop to the ground. The waiters had to press dishesupon the diners' notice; and the diners had to draw the attentionof waiters, for they were all absorbed in looking at the storm.
As the thunder showed no signs of withdrawing, but seemed massedright overhead, while the lightning aimed straight at the gardenevery time, an uneasy gloom replaced the first excitement.
Finishing the meal very quickly, people congregated in the hall,where they felt more secure than in any other place because they couldretreat far from the windows, and although they heard the thunder,they could not see anything. A little boy was carried away sobbingin the arms of his mother.
While the storm continued, no one seemed inclined to sit down,but they collected in little groups under the central skylight,where they stood in a yellow atmosphere, looking upwards.
Now and again their faces became white, as the lightning flashed,and finally a terrific crash came, making the panes of the skylightlift at the joints.
"Ah!" several voices exclaimed at the same moment.
"Something struck," said a man's voice.
The rain rushed down. The rain seemed now to extinguish the lightningand the thunder, and the hall became almost dark.
After a minute or two, when nothing was heard but the rattle of waterupon the glass, there was a perceptible slackening of the sound,and then the atmosphere became lighter.
"It's over," said another voice.
At a touch, all the electric lights were turned on, and revealeda crowd of people all standing, all looking with rather strained facesup at the skylight, but when they saw each other in the artificiallight they turned at once and began to move away. For some minutesthe rain continued to rattle upon the skylight, and the thundergave another shake or two; but it was evident from the clearingof the darkness and the light drumming of the rain upon the roof,that the great confused ocean of air was travelling away from them,and passing high over head with its clouds and its rods of fire,out to sea. The building, which had seemed so small in the tumultof the storm, now became as square and spacious as usual.
As the storm drew away, the people in the hall of the hotel sat down;and with a comfortable sense of relief, began to tell each other storiesabout great storms, and produced in many cases their occupationsfor the evening. The chess-board was brought out, and Mr. Elliot,who wore a stock instead of a collar as a sign of convalescence, but wasotherwise much as usual, challenged Mr. Pepper to a final contest.
Round them gathered a group of ladies with pieces of needlework,or in default of needlework, with novels, to superintend the game,much as if they were in charge of two small boys playing marbles.
Every now and then they looked at the board and made some encouragingremark to the gentlemen.
Mrs. Paley just round the corner had her cards arranged in long laddersbefore her, with Susan sitting near to sympathise but not to correct,and the merchants and the miscellaneous people who had never beendiscovered to possess names were stretched in their arm-chairswith their newspapers on their knees. The conversation in thesecircumstances was very gentle, fragmentary, and intermittent,but the room was full of the indescribable stir of life. Every nowand then the moth, which was now grey of wing and shiny of thorax,whizzed over their heads, and hit the lamps with a thud.
A young woman put down her needlework and exclaimed, "Poor creature!
it would be kinder to kill it." But nobody seemed disposed to rousehimself in order to kill the moth. They watched it dash from lampto lamp, because they were comfortable, and had nothing to do.
On the sofa, beside the chess-players, Mrs. Elliot was impartinga new stitch in knitting to Mrs. Thornbury, so that their headscame very near together, and were only to be distinguishedby the old lace cap which Mrs. Thornbury wore in the evening.
Mrs. Elliot was an expert at knitting, and disclaimed a complimentto that effect with evident pride.
"I suppose we're all proud of something," she said, "and I'm proud ofmy knitting. I think things like that run in families. We all knit well.
I had an uncle who knitted his own socks to the day of his death--and he did it better than any of his daughters, dear old gentleman.
Now I wonder that you, Miss Allan, who use your eyes so much,don't take up knitting in the evenings. You'd find it such a relief,I should say--such a rest to the eyes--and the bazaars are so gladof things." Her voice dropped into the smooth half-conscious toneof the expert knitter; the words came gently one after another.
"As much as I do I can always dispose of, which is a comfort, for thenI feel that I am not wasting my time--"Miss Allan, being thus addressed, shut her novel and observedthe others placidly for a time. At last she said, "It is surelynot natural to leave your wife because she happens to be in lovewith you. But that--as far as I can make out--is what the gentlemanin my story does.""Tut, tut, that doesn't sound good--no, that doesn't soundat all natural," murmured the knitters in their absorbed voices.
"Still, it's the kind of book people call very clever," Miss Allan added.
"_Maternity_--by Michael Jessop--I presume," Mr. Elliot put in,for he could never resist the temptation of talking while heplayed chess.
"D'you know," said Mrs. Elliot, after a moment, "I don't think people_do_ write good novels now--not as good as they used to, anyhow."No one took the trouble to agree with her or to disagree with her.
Arthur Venning who was strolling about, sometimes looking at the game,sometimes reading a page of a magazine, looked at Miss Allan,who was half asleep, and said humorously, "............