midnight
He then ransacked the drawers for paper and string , made up a parcel which he addressed to Miss Haldin , Boulevard des Philosophes , and then flung the pen away from him into a distant corner . This done , he sat down with the watch before him . He could have gone out at once , but the hour had not struck yet . The hour would be midnight . There was no reason for that choice except that the facts and the words of a certain evening in his past were timing his conduct in the present . The sudden power Natalia Haldin had gained over him he ascribed to the same cause . `` You do n't walk with impunity over a phantom 's breast , '' he heard himself mutter .