five o’clock
That would give me pleasure . '' The distance was scarcely three kilometers ; that would be only a pleasant walk in this delightful weather . And she agreed gaily , not sulky now , but pressing close to him , happy to hang on his arm . It was five o'clock . The setting sun spread over the fields a great sheet of gold . But as soon as they left Plassans they were obliged to cross the corner of the vast , arid plain , which extended to the right of the Viorne . The new canal , whose irrigating waters were soon to transform the face of the country parched with thirst , did not yet water this quarter , and red fields and yellow fields stretched away into the distance under the melancholy and blighting glare of the sun , planted only with puny almond trees and dwarf olives , constantly cut down and pruned , whose branches twisted and writhed in attitudes of suffering and revolt .