For having lived in Westminster-how many years now? over twenty,
-- one feels even in the midst of the traffic, or waking at night,
Clarissa was
positive, a particular hush, or solemnity; an indescribable pause; a
suspense (but that might be her heart, affected, they said, by
influenza) before Big Ben strikes. There! Out
it boomed. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable.