four o’clock in June
The workroom faced the north , and was exactly on a level with an innumerable multitude of red chimney-pots pouring forth stinking smoke which , for the six winter months , generally darkened the air during the whole day . But occasionally Nature resumed her rights , and it was possible to feel that sky , stars , sun , and moon still existed , and were not blotted out by the obscurations of what is called civilised life . There came , occasionally , wild nights in October or November , with a gale from the south-west and then , when almost everybody had gone to bed and the fires were out , the clouds , illuminated by the moon , rushed across the heavens , and the Great Bear hung over the dismal waste of smutty tiles with the same solemnity with which it hangs over the mountains , the sea , or the desert . Early in the morning , too , in summer , between three and four o'clock in June , there were sights to be seen worth seeing . The distance was clear for miles , and the heights of Highgate were visible , proclaiming the gospel of a beyond and beyond even to Kent 's Court , and that its immediate surroundings were mercifully not infinite . The light made even the nearest bit of soot-grimed , twisted , rotten brickwork beautiful , and occasionally , but at very rare intervals , the odour of London was vanquished , and a genuine breath from the Brixton fields was able to find its way uncontaminated across the river . Jean and Pauline were , on the whole , fond of the court .