nearly two o’clock in the morning
Then Gagniere trembled . A painful twitch came over his ecstatic face , and he shivered as if he had dropped from the stars . He gulped down his beer , and once on the pavement outside , after pressing his companion 's hand in silence , he walked off into the gloom . It was nearly two o'clock in the morning when Claude returned to the Rue de Douai . During the week that he had been scouring Paris anew , he had each time brought back with him the feverish excitement of the day . But he had never before returned so late , with his brain so hot and smoky . Christine , overcome with fatigue , was asleep under the lamp , which had gone out , her brow resting on the edge of the table .