five o’clock
When they were approaching Plassans she put her head out of the window eagerly , longing to see the town again after her short absence of two months . It seemed to her as if she had been away for twenty years , and that everything must be changed . When the train was leaving the little station of Sainte-Marthe her emotion reached its height when , leaning out , she saw in the distance La Souleiade with the two secular cypresses on the terrace , which could be seen three leagues off . It was five o'clock , and twilight was already falling . The train stopped , and Clotilde descended . But it was a surprise and a keen grief to her not to see Pascal waiting for her on the platform . She had been saying to herself since they had left Lyons : `` If I do not see him at once , on the arrival of the train , it will be because he is ill . ''