about three o’clock
August 11 . All day long I have been classifying MSS ... . The sun came in through the loft uncurtained windows ; and , during my reading , often very interesting , I could hear the languid bumblebees bump heavily against the windows , and the flies intoxicated with light and heat , making their wings hum in circles around my head . So loud became their humming about three o'clock that I looked up from the document I was reading -- a document containing very precious materials for the history of Melun in the thirteenth century -- to watch the concentric movements of those tiny creatures . `` Bestions , '' Lafontaine calls them : he found this form of the word in the old popular speech , whence also the term , tapisserie-a-bestions , applied to figured tapestry . I was compelled to confess that the effect of heat upon the wings of a fly is totally different from that it exerts upon the brain of a paleographical archivist ; for I found it very difficult to think , and a rather pleasant languor weighing upon me , from which I could rouse myself only by a very determined effort . The dinner-bell then startled me in the midst of my labours ; and I had barely time to put on my new dress-coat , so as to make a respectable appearance before Madame de Gabry .