three o'clock in the morning
He invariably waited for the lights to appear in the shaded windows of her room upstairs , and then he would hurry away as if pursued . Once , after roaming the streets for two hours following her return to the house , he wended his way back to the spot from which he had last gazed at her windows . To his surprise the lights were still burning . After that he never left the neighbourhood until he saw that the windows were dark , and more often than otherwise the lights did not go out until two or three o'clock in the morning . The significance of these nightly indications of sleeplessness on her part did not escape him . Bitterly cold and blustering were some of the nights . He sought warmth and shelter from time to time in the near-by cafés , always returning to his post when the call became irresistible .