Now the bell had been ringing all the morning, as workmen, or servants, or coiffeurs, or tailleuses , went and came on their several errands. Moreover, there was good reason to expect it would ring all the afternoon, since about one hundred externes were yet to arrive in carriages or fiacres: nor could it be expected to rest during the evening, when parents and friends would gather thronging to the play. Under these circumstances, a ring⁠—even a sharp ring⁠—was a matter of course: yet this particular peal had an accent of its own, which chased my dream, and startled my book from my knee.