56 LOLA 



" How many minutes are there in half an hour ? " 

 And she replied : "30." And again : " How many 

 minutes has a quarter of an hour that is, an hour 

 divided by 4 ? " And she answered : " 15." She 

 also showed much interest in all this, for she sat as 

 still as could be, listening attentively to all my explana- 

 tions. And I kept her interest alive by always telling 

 her " what nice new things Lola would be able to 

 learn," and at this she was visibly pleased. 



The next day I made casual remarks as to the time 

 of day out loud, and all this day's answers were 

 equally good. I now saw that she had grasped the 

 essentials so that I could put the clock away, and 

 there is not another in my rooms, the nearest being 

 a big one standing in the kitchen which is on the ground 

 floor. I never carry my watch, leaving it in a drawer 

 and generally forgetting to wind it up, so that if I 

 do not ask, I seldom know what the time is. I have 

 no sense of time whatever myself, so that to me it 

 may seem either long or short according to what 

 I may be doing. I have always envied people who 

 possessed this sense of absolute certainty in guessing 

 the time it is not a common gift. I make this remark 

 "parenthetically" in my desire for trying to eluci- 

 date the causes which lie at the back of the " feeling 

 for time." 



On the third day after my first explanations I said 

 to Lola in the course of the morning : " Tell me what 

 time it is. I daresay you know without seeing the 

 clock ! " To which she answered " Yes ! " " Then 

 tell me the hour first," I said, and she rapped : " 10 ; " 

 " And now the minutes ? " "35." I then went 

 downstairs and found that the kitchen clock pointed 

 to 10.30, but I was told that it was not quite exact, 

 so I telephoned to the Post Office, and inquired the 



