three o’clock in the morning
It made him earnestly , indeed I thought quite anxiously , shake his head and wave his finger `` Give it up -- give it up ! '' This was n't a challenge -- it was fatherly advice . If I had had one of his books at hand I 'd have repeated my recent act of faith -- I 'd have spent half the night with him . At three o'clock in the morning , not sleeping , remembering moreover how indispensable he was to Lady Jane , I stole down to the library with a candle . There was n't , so far as I could discover , a line of his writing in the house . RETURNING to town I feverishly collected them all ; I picked out each in its order and held it up to the light . This gave me a maddening month , in the course of which several things took place .