Annele did not say a syllable.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE PENDULUMS SWING TOGETHER, BUT THE
STRESS ON THE MAINSPRING IS SEVERE.
"Annele, come here, I have something to show you."
"I have no time."
"Only look, for it will please you. See, I set agoing two pendulums, on both these clocks, the one from right to left, and the other the reverse way. If you will observe, you will see that in the course of a few days they will both swing in the same direction, from right to left, or both the reverse way. That is owing to the power of attraction they mutually exercise; they approximate to each other by degrees."
"I don't believe that."
"You can see it with your own eyes; and so it will be with us. The one starts from the right, and the other from the left, and we must gradually balance each other. To be sure the pendulums never tick quite together, so as to make but one sound; a Spanish king tried to accomplish this, and it fairly turned his brain."
"Such nonsense only plagues me; you seem to have time for it, however, but I have not."