The boughs of the trees
tapped significantly on the window panes, as if ask-
ing for admittance. I remember it all through these
years and years of a wiser, graver life.
Seeing myself unobserved, I took the old-fashioned
key that dangled from the chain and quickly turned
back the hands of the watch a full hour; then, closing
the case, I handed Bartine his property and saw
him replace it on his person.
'I think you said,' I began, with assumed care-
lessness, 'that after eleven the sight of the dial no
longer affects you. As it is now nearly twelve'--
looking at my own timepiece--'perhaps, if you
don't resent my pursuit of proof, you will look at it
now.'
He smiled good-humouredly, pulled out the watch
again, opened it, and instantly sprang to his feet
with a cry that Heaven has not had the mercy to
permit me to forget! His eyes, their blackness strik-
ingly intensified by the pallor of his face, were fixed
upon the watch, which he clutched in both hands.
For some time he remained in that attitude without
uttering another sound; then, in a voice that I should
not have recognized as his, he said:
'Damn you! it is two minutes to eleven!'
I was not unprepared for some such outbreak, and
without rising replied, calmly enough:
'I beg your pardon; I must have misread your
watch in setting my own by it.'
He shut the case with a sharp snap and put the
watch in his pocket.
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