A little silence: and he had received the great.
A gecko fell from the ceiling, with a tiny thump that made all start.

He had struck the piano, and the strings answered with a faint, aeolian confusion.

Then, as they regarded one another silently, a rustle, a flurry, sounded on the stairs.

A woman stumbled into the loft, sobbing, crying something inarticulate, as she ran blindly toward them, with white face and wild eyes.

She halted abruptly, swayed as though to fall, and turned, rather by instinct than by vision, to the other women.
"Bertha!" protested Gilly, with a helpless stare.