seven o'clock
With prefatory excuses , I informed her that I should not be able to dine at home as usual . Impossible as it was that she could have been prepared to hear this , her presence of mind was equal to the occasion . I left the house , followed by my stepmother 's best wishes for a pleasant evening . Hoping to speak with Cristel alone , I had arranged to reach the cottage before seven o'clock . On the river-margin of the wood , I was confronted by a wild gleam of beauty in the familiar view , for which previous experience had not prepared me . Am I wrong in believing that all scenery , no matter how magnificent or how homely it may be , derives a splendor not its own from favouring conditions of light and shade ? Our gloomy trees and our repellent river presented an aspect superbly transfigured , under the shadows of the towering clouds , the fantastic wreaths of the mist , and the lurid reddening of the sun as it stooped to its setting .