***
[The "lying voices" are clocks!]
The clocks ticked in a hundred different rhythms, loudly or softly, on high or low notes, some striking the hours sweetly and some with a jangle and some letting them pass without comment of any kind. But one thing all the clocks had in common. Every single one in that room, big or little, shabby or splendid, grotesque or beautiful, was wrong.
[A little later.]
"Time doesn't mean anything to the people here."
"Except to the man with a roomful of clocks."
"Oh, but it isn't time that interests him--all the clocks are wrong."
***
