eight o'clock
He had none the less treated me with undeserved kindness , and I was grateful to him for it -- and I would know how to appreciate it too . I made a resolution not to return to him until I could take something with me , that satisfied me perfectly ; something that would astonish the `` commandor '' a bit , and make him order me to be paid half-a-sovereign without a moment 's hesitation . I went home , and tackled my writing once more . During the following evenings , as soon as it got near eight o'clock and the gas was lit , the following thing happened regularly to me . As I come out of my room to take a walk in the streets after the labour and troubles of the day , a lady , dressed in black , stands under the lamp-post exactly opposite my door . She turns her face towards me and follows me with her eyes when I pass her by -- I remark that she always has the same dress on , always the same thick veil that conceals her face and falls over her breast , and that she carries in her hand a small umbrella with an ivory ring in the handle . This was already the third evening I had seen her there , always in the same place .