three o'clock in the afternoon
It was not the first time Paul had steered through treacherous waters . How astonishingly easy it had all been ; here he was , the thing done ; and this time there would be no awakening , no figure at the top of the stairs . He watched the snowflakes whirling by his window until he fell asleep . When he awoke , it was three o'clock in the afternoon . He bounded up with a start ; half of one of his precious days gone already ! He spent more than an hour in dressing , watching every stage of his toilet carefully in the mirror . Everything was quite perfect ; he was exactly the kind of boy he had always wanted to be .