The night was warm and windless.

A shaving of new moon had lately arisen; but it was still too small and too low down in heaven to contend with the immense host of lesser luminaries; and the rough face of the earth was drenched with starlight.

Down one of the alleys, which widened as it receded, he could see a part of the lamplit terrace where a sentry silently paced, and beyond that a corner of the town with interlacing street-lights.

But all around him the young trees stood mystically blurred in the dim shine; and in the stock-still quietness the upleaping god appeared alive.
In this dimness and silence of the night, Otto's conscience became suddenly and staringly luminous, like the dial of a city clock.

He averted the eyes of his mind, but the finger rapidly travelling, pointed to a series of misdeeds that took his breath away.