two o'clock
This talking spoils my morning smoke ... ' So we speak together across the sea , my God . * * * * * On the morning of the 8th April , when I had been separated thirteen weeks from her , I boarded several ships in the Inner Port , a lunacy in my heart , and selected what looked like a very swift boat , one of the smaller Atlantic air-steamers called the _ Stettin _ , which seemed to require the least labour in oiling , & c. , in order to fit her for the sea : for the boat in which I had come to England was a mere tub , though sound , and I pined for the wings of a dove , that I might fly away to her , and be at rest . I toiled with fluttering hands that day , and I believe that I was of the colour of ashes to my very lips . By half-past two o'clock I was finished , and by three was coasting down Southampton Water by Netley Hospital and the Hamble-mouth , having said not one word about anything at the telephone , or even to my own guilty heart not a word . But in the silent depths of my being I felt this fact : that this must be a 35-knot boat , and that , if driven hard , hard , in spite of the heavy garment of seaweed which she trailed , she would do 30 ; also that Havre was 120 miles away , and at 7 P.M. I should be on its quay . And when I was away , and out on the bright and breezy sea , I called to her , crying out : ' _ I am coming ! _ ' And I knew that she heard me , and that her heart leapt to meet me , for mine leapt , too , and felt her answering .