“You’ve paid the debt,” he said.
At a quarter to three the music of the bells began again and the big bell of the cathedral came droning round the angle of the cliffs.
“It really is quite natural; and the phenomenon is well known all through the district,” Ralph explained. “When the wind blows from the north-east, that is to say from Clermont-Ferrand, the acoustic qualities of the country cause a strong current of air to carry all these sounds by a compulsory route which winds among the mountains and ends at the surface of the lake. It is inevitable; it is mathematical. The bells of all the churches of Clermont-Ferrand and the big bell of its [[268]]cathedral cannot do anything else but come and ring here as they are doing at the moment.”
She shook her head.
“No,” she said. “It is not so. Your explanation does not satisfy me.”
“Have you another?”
“The true one.”
“What is it?”
“I firmly believe that it is you who bring the sound of these bells here to revive all my impressions as a child.”
“I’m omnipotent, then?”