seven o'clock in the morning
Slowly the hours I spent with her extended -- unperceived by her , exquisitely perceived by me -- until , at the date to which I am now come , near a year after my entering the university , I may say there was not a spare moment of the day , from my rising to my going to bed , which was not passed with Aurelia . To make the full import of this plain to the reader I must particularise to some extent . My own rooms , I have explained , were in the same house , two storeys below the Lanfranchi apartment . In them I was served with my chocolate by old Nonna the servant , and was understood to leave them at seven o'clock in the morning and not to return until midday , when I dined with my hosts . The afternoons were my own . I was at liberty to take horse exercise -- and I kept two saddle-horses for the purpose -- or to make parties of pleasure with such of my fellow-students as were agreeable to me . At six I supped with Aurelia alone , and at seven I was supposed to retire -- either to my own room for study and bed , or into the town upon my private pleasures .