three o'clock
She and her parents were too busy to take note of what went on outside . A faint chill of desolation touched me . It would have been cheering to have news of the Boy and his cavalcade _ en route _ . By three o'clock Chambéry was well in sight , lying far below us as we wound down from mountain heights , and looking , from our point of view , in position something like an inferior Aosta . It basked in a great sun-swept plain , and away to the left a lateral valley , dimly blue , opened towards Modane and the Mont Cenis . Descending , we found the resemblance carried on by a few ancient châteaux and fortified farmhouses , and as we had now come upon a part of the road which Joseph knew , he pointed out to me , in the far distance , the little villa , Les Charmettes , where Rousseau and Madame de Warens kept house together . Again and again I thought we were on the point of arriving in the town , and had visions of exchanging adventures with the Boy at the Hôtel de France ; but always the place seemed to recede before our eyes , elusive as a mirage , alighting again five or six miles away ; and this it did , not once , but several times , with singular skill and accuracy .