The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: he thought the silence in the room was becoming dangerous, and so
excessive as to produce the effect of an intolerable uproar. He wanted
to end it, as one is anxious to interrupt an indiscreet confession;
but with the memory of that laugh upstairs he dared not give her an
occasion to open her lips. Presently he heard her voice pronouncing in
a calm tone some unimportant remark. He detached his eyes from the
centre of his plate and felt excited as if on the point of looking at
a wonder. And nothing could be more wonderful than her composure. He
was looking at the candid eyes, at the pure brow, at what he had seen
every evening for years in that place; he listened to the voice that
for five years he had heard every day. Perhaps she was a little
 Tales of Unrest |