four o'clock
Early in November , all ponds and pools were bearing , and forthwith many hundreds of people forgot the severity of the weather , and thronged out with their skates . Maurice was among the first . He was a passionate skater ; and it was the one form of sport in which he excelled . As four o'clock came round , he could contain himself no longer ; he would rather have gone without his dinner , than have missed , on the JOHANNATEICH , the two hours that elapsed before the sweepers , crying : `` FEIERABEND ! '' drove the skaters before them , with their brooms . In a tightly buttoned square jacket , the collar of which was turned up as far as it would go , with the flaps of his astrachan cap drawn over his cars , his hands in coarse woollen gloves , Maurice defied the cold , flying round the two ponds that formed the JOHANNATEICH , or practising intricate figures with a Canadian acquaintance in a corner . Madeleine watched him approvingly from one of the wooden bridges that spanned the neck connecting the ponds .