about seven o’clock
`` He told me I had been a brother to him , '' thought the prince . `` He said so today , for the first time . '' He was sitting in the Summer Garden on a seat under a tree , and his mind dwelt on the matter . It was about seven o'clock , and the place was empty . The stifling atmosphere foretold a storm , and the prince felt a certain charm in the contemplative mood which possessed him . He found pleasure , too , in gazing at the exterior objects around him . All the time he was trying to forget some thing , to escape from some idea that haunted him ; but melancholy thoughts came back , though he would so willingly have escaped from them .