midnight
She loved the sun and in this city where the sun shone almost all the days , sparkling gloriously upon the tiny salt particles filling the air and making it delicious to breathe and upon the skin -- in this City of the Sun as she called it , she was gay even when she was heavy-hearted . Thus , she was no repellent , aggravating companion to Rod as she awaited the cataclysm . It came in the third week . He spent the entire day away from her , toward midnight he returned , flushed with liquor . She had gone to bed . `` Get up and dress , '' said he with an irritability toward her which she had no difficulty in seeing was really directed at himself . `` I 'm hungry -- and thirsty .