two o’clock in the morning
Yves treats my wife as if she were a plaything , and continually assures me that she is charming . I find her as exasperating as the cicalas on my roof ; and when I am alone at home , side by side with this little creature twanging the strings of her long-necked guitar , facing this marvellous panorama of pagodas and mountains , I am overcome by sadness almost to tears . July 13th . Last night , as we reposed under the Japanese roof of Diou-djen-dji -- the thin old wooden roof scorched by a hundred years of sunshine , vibrating at the least sound , like the stretched-out parchment of a tomtom -- in the silence which prevails at two o'clock in the morning , we heard overhead a sound like a regular wild huntsman 's chase passing at full gallop . `` Nidzoumi ! '' -LRB- `` The mice ! '' -RRB- said Chrysantheme .