three o'clock in the morning
I flung myself down at my writing-table , tossing my former work right and left to make room for this . If it should escape before I could set it down ! If the least of those airy cadences should be lost ! At three o'clock in the morning I came back to realization of time and place . The composition was finished ; it stood up before me like a flower raised over-night . Eight hours had passed since I sat down to the work , after dinner . I was tired .