noon
As the endless day wore on , she began to glance anxiously towards the door , straining her ears for a familiar footstep in the outer shop . As has been said , the Count sometimes looked in on Wednesdays , when his calculations had convinced him that his friends , not having arrived by one train , could not be expected for several hours . But to-day he did not come , to-day when Vjera would have given heaven and earth for a sight of him . Never , in her short life , had she realised how slowly the hours could limp along from sunrise to noon , from noon to sunset , never had the little spot of sunlight which appeared in the back-shop on fine afternoons taken so long to crawl its diagonal course from the left front-leg of Dumnoff 's table , where it made its appearance , to the right-hand corner of her own , at which point it suddenly went out and was seen no more , being probably intercepted by some fixed object outside . Time is the measure of most unhapppiness , for it is in sorrow and anxiety that we are most keenly conscious of it , and are oppressed by its leaden weight . When we are absorbed in work , in study , in the production of anything upon which all our faculties are concentrated , we say that the time passes quickly . When we are happy we know nothing of time nor of its movement , only , long afterwards , we look back , and we say , `` How short the hours seemed then ! ''