one o'clock
No ; if in anything I ran into excess , it was in this very point of anxiety as to all that regarded my wife 's security . Her good sense , her prudence , her courage , -LRB- for courage she had in the midst of her timidity , -RRB- her dignity of manner , the more impressive from the childlike character of her countenance , all should have combined to reassure me , and yet they did not . I was still anxious for her safety to an irrational extent ; and to sum up the whole in a most weighty line of Shakspeare , I lived under the constant presence of a feeling which only that great observer of human nature -LRB- so far as I am aware -RRB- has ever noticed , viz. , that merely the excess of my happiness made me jealous of its ability to last , and in that extent less capable of enjoying it ; that in fact the prelibation of my tears , as a homage to its fragility , was drawn forth by my very sense that my felicity was too exquisite ; or , in the words of the great master ` I wept to have ' -LSB- absolutely , by anticipation , shed tears in possessing -RSB- ` what I so feared to lose . ' Thus end my explanations , and I now pursue my narrative : Agnes , as I have said , came into my room again before leaving the house -- we conversed for five minutes -- we parted -- she went out -- her last words being that she would return at half-past one o'clock ; and not long after that time , if ever mimic bells -- bells of rejoicing , or bells of mourning , are heard in desert spaces of the air , and -LRB- as some have said -RRB- in unreal worlds , that mock our own , and repeat , for ridicule , the vain and unprofitable motions of man , then too surely , about this hour , began to toll the funeral knell of my earthly happiness -- its final hour had sounded . * * * * * One o'clock had arrived ; fifteen minutes after , I strolled into the garden , and began to look over the little garden-gate in expectation of every moment descrying Agnes in the distance . Half an hour passed , and for ten minutes more I was tolerably quiet . From this time till half-past two I became constantly more agitated -- _ agitated , _ perhaps , is too strong a word -- but I was restless and anxious beyond what I should have chosen to acknowledge .