quarter past one
At eleven o'clock he was still awake . At twelve o'clock he was still awake ... . At one o'clock he was almost crazy . By quarter past one , as though fairly hypnotized , his eyes began to rivet themselves on the little bright spot in the rug where the `` serial-letter '' lay gleaming whitely in a beam of electric light from the street . Finally , in one supreme , childish impulse of petulant curiosity , he scrambled shiveringly out of his blankets with many `` O -- h 's '' and `` O-u-c-h - 's , '' recaptured the letter , and took it growlingly back to his warm bed . Worn out quite as much with the grinding monotony of his rheumatic pains as with their actual acuteness , the new discomfort of straining his eyes under the feeble rays of his night-light seemed almost a pleasant diversion . The envelope was certainly fat .