But it had become now a soothing murmur, not unlike the coming in of a tide at the foot of high cliffs--just one gentle continuous note, overlaid with light, shrill sounds.

This too required long argument and reasoning before any conclusion could be reached; but it was attained at last, and he became certain that he lay somewhere within sound of busy streets.

Then rashly he leapt to the belief that he must be in his own lodgings in Bloomsbury; but another long slow stare upwards showed him that the white ceiling was too far away.
The effort of thought seemed too much for him; it gave him a sense of inexplicable discomfort.

He determined to think no more, for fear that the noises should revert again to the crash of hammers in his hollow head.

.