three o'clock
The house was very still , but every quarter of an hour the Cathedral chimes across the Close -- our rooms lay in a quiet wing of the hotel , which formed a hollow square with the Cathedral , Chapter-house , and Canonries -- furnished a musical break in the silence . So tensely mechanical does one 's brain become under such circumstances , that presently I found myself anticipating the exact moment when the next quarter would strike ; and I remember feeling quite disappointed and irritable if , when I said to myself _ `` Now ! '' _ the chime did not ring out for another fifteen seconds or so . Truly , at three o'clock on a sleepless morning the grasshopper is a burden . Once Robin rose softly to his feet and turned towards the door of Phillis 's room . I had not heard any one move there , but when I looked round Dolly was standing on the threshold . She was wrapped in a kimono , -- I remember its exact colour and pattern to this day , and the curious manner in which the heraldic-looking animals embroidered upon it winked at me in the firelight , -- and she held an incongruous-looking coal-scuttle in her hand .