From the first summons which disturbed my sleep to the last shadowy glimpse which I had of them between the tree trunks could hardly have occupied more than five minutes of actual time.

So sudden was it, and so strange, that when the drama was over and they were gone I could have believed that it was all some terrible nightmare, some delusion, had I not felt that the impression was too real, too vivid, to be imputed to fancy.
"I threw my whole weight against my bedroom door in the hope of forcing the lock.

It stood firm for a while, but I flung myself upon it again and again, until something snapped and I found myself in the passage.
"My first thought was for my mother, I rushed to her room and turned the key in her door.

The moment that I did so she stepped out into the corridor in her dressing-gown, and held up a warning finger.
"'No noise, she said,' Gabriel is asleep.

They have been called away ?' "'They have,' I answered.
"'God's will be done!' she cried.