one o'clock
Once again it seemed to him that the only thing in the world that it was utterly impossible to him to relinquish was the possession of Bianca . The hot fit of his fever was on him in all its intensity ; and there was nothing that he could do , or suffer , or undergo that he would not rather do , or suffer , or undergo than admit the thought of giving her up . It really seemed as if there were some physical emanation from her person -- some magnetic stream -- some distillation from the nervous system of one organization mysteriously potent over the nervous system of another , which mounted to his brain , mastered the sources of his volition , and drew him helpless after her , as helplessly as the magnetized patient obeys the will of his magnetizer . Suddenly both of them heard one o'clock strike from the neighbouring church . To the Marchese it was a knell which , with horrid warning-note , dragged him forcibly back from his Circean dalliance to the thoughts , the things , and the people whose incompatibility with the possibility of such dalliance was driving him mad . It was the hour at which he had promised to wait upon the Cardinal . It was absolutely necessary that he should go at once ; and he tore himself away from that fatal sofa-seat with a wrench , and a reflection on the purpose of his visit to the Legate , which seemed to him really to threaten to disturb his reason .