"A few bars were played without revealing anything out of the ordinary, hardly even a slight precipitancy. Suddenly, though nothing in the progress of the music announced it, I heard a poignant note, a sound comparable with a sharp point which would at first rest lightly on the skin; but then the skin gives way abruptly and the point is suddenly deep in the flesh. Immediately, there followed a series of notes of assumed tranquillity, laboriously regular, as though she intended to put me off the scent; as if someone, after uttering a cry, had said evenly: 'Well? What's the matter? What are you staring for?'"(Romains, 67)
