three o'clock
... . I was suddenly filled with the fever of composing arguments to change a decision that appeared to me to be the result of a monstrous caprice and delusion ; writing them out , as they occurred to me , in snatches on the backs of envelopes -- her envelopes . Then I proceeded to make the draft of a letter , the effort required for composition easing me until the draft was finished ; when I started for the hotel , climbing fences , leaping streams , making my way across rock faces and through woods ; halting now and then as some reenforcing argument occurred to me to write it into my draft at the proper place until the sheets were interlined and blurred and almost illegible . It was already three o'clock when I reached my room , and the mail left at four . I began to copy and revise my scrawl , glancing from time to time at my watch , which I had laid on the table . Hurriedly washing my face and brushing my hair , I arrived downstairs just as the stage was leaving ... . After the letter had gone still other arguments I might have added began to occur to me , and I regretted that I had not softened some of the things I wrote and made others more emphatic .