four o'clock
And till nightfall , five or six men , always the same , stayed playing at corks in front of the large door of the inn . The winter was severe . The windows every morning were covered with rime , and the light shining through them , dim as through ground-glass , sometimes did not change the whole day long . At four o'clock the lamp had to be lighted . On fine days she went down into the garden . The dew had left on the cabbages a silver lace with long transparent threads spreading from one to the other . No birds were to be heard ; everything seemed asleep , the espalier covered with straw , and the vine , like a great sick serpent under the coping of the wall , along which , on drawing near , one saw the many-footed woodlice crawling .