about four o’clock
She forgot the danger ; they walked arm in arm like a young married couple ; and that constantly repeated promenade , that leisurely journey over the self-same ground by the river side , acquired an infinite charm , full of a happiness such as could scarcely be surpassed in after-times . They truly belonged to each other , though they had not erred . It seemed as if the very soul of the great city , rising from the river , wrapped them around with all the love that had throbbed behind the grey stone walls through the long lapse of ages . Since the nipping colds of December , Christine only came in the afternoon , and it was about four o'clock , when the sun was sinking , that Claude escorted her back on his arm . On days when the sky was clear , they could see the long line of quays stretching away into space directly they had crossed the Pont Louis-Philippe . From one end to the other the slanting sun powdered the houses on the right bank with golden dust , while , on the left , the islets , the buildings , stood out in a black line against the blazing glory of the sunset . Between the sombre and the brilliant margin , the spangled river sparkled , cut in twain every now and then by the long bars of its bridges ; the five arches of the Pont Notre-Dame showing under the single span of the Pont d'Arcole ; then the Pont-au-Change and the Pont-Neuf , beyond each of whose shadows appeared a luminous patch , a sheet of bluish satiny water , growing paler here and there with a mirror-like reflection .