two o'clock
Some day she would present herself before him : -- ` Very sorry that I could not oblige you , my dear sir , but you see that my lot was to be rather different from that you kindly planned for me . ' Let them gossip and envy ! It was a strange night that followed . Between one and two o'clock the heavens began to be overflashed with summer lightning ; there was no thunder , no rain . The blue gleams kept illuminating the room for more than an hour . Clara could not lie in bed . The activity of her brain became all but delirium ; along her nerves , through all the courses of her blood , seemed to run fires which excited her with an indescribable mingling of delight and torment .