nine o'clock
`` Nunc mihi summa licet sidera contingere plantis . '' And that exalted strain , which was my perdition , alas , was hers also ! That which followed was a very hot still night , with thunder in the Euganean hills ; and Aurelia may have been lax or languid , or in my miserable person some of the summer 's fire may have throbbed . It was late , near nine o'clock ; already old Nonna had given three warnings of the hour , and was only delaying the last while she stirred the ingredients of the doctor 's minestrone over the fire . The knowledge that she must come in , and I go out , shortly , at any moment , fretted my quick senses to fever . I looked for ever at Aurelia with a wildly beating heart ; she , on her side , was aware of my agitation , and breathed the shorter for the knowledge . She sat by the open window mending a pair of stays ; at her side was her work table , upon that her three-wicked lamp .