midnight
Moreover , this calm and splendid summer is also drawing to a close for us-since to-morrow we shall go forth to meet the autumn , in Northern China . I am beginning , alas ! to count the youthful summers I may still hope for ; I feel more gloomy each time another fades away , and flies to rejoin the others already disappeared in the dark and bottomless abyss , where all past things lie buried . At midnight we return home , and my removal begins ; while on board the `` amazingly tall friend '' kindly takes my watch . It is a nocturnal , rapid , stealthy removal -- `` doyobo -LRB- thieves -RRB- fashion , '' remarks Yves , who in visiting the mousmes has picked up a smattering of the Nipponese language . Messieurs the packers have , at my request , sent in the evening several charming little boxes , with compartments and false bottoms , and several paper bags -LRB- in the untearable Japanese paper -RRB- , which close of themselves and are fastened by strings , also in paper , arranged beforehand in the most ingenious manner -- quite the cleverest and most handy thing of its kind ; for little useful trifles these people are unrivalled . It is a real treat to pack them , and everybody lends a helping hand -- Yves , Chrysantheme , Madame Prune , her daughter , and M. Sucre .