But to be there alone in the dark, with the image of that Rosalind of former years clinging to him, and crying for forgiveness because his mind, warped against her by a false conception of the truth, could not forgive; to be defenceless against her last words, coming through the long interval to him again just as he heard them, twenty years ago, bringing back the other noises of the Indian night-the lowing of the bullocks in the compound, the striking of the hour on the Kutcherry gongs, the grinding of the Persian wheels unceasingly drawing water for the irrigation of the fields-to be exposed to this solitude and ever-growing imagination was to become the soil for a self-sown crop of terrors-fear of fever, fear of madness, fear at the very least of perturbation such that Sally might come, through it, to a knowledge that had to be kept from her at all costs.
"Somehow Good"
William de Morgan
It seemed strange, in the presence of this calm sea and silver starlight, to hear the dull echoing of the gongs and drums, and the rude cries of the worshippers.
"A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates in the Chinese Seas"
Fanny Loviot
The gongs and drums were now played more loudly, and the chief seemed to pray more earnestly than ever; but as soon as the last paper was dropped, and the last spark extinguished, the music ceased, the prayer came to an end, and the service was over.
"A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates in the Chinese Seas"
Fanny Loviot