midnight
Swans glided lazily in groups or singly over the muddy-looking surface of the water , or came under the open windows of the Alster Pavilion , through which late breakfasting guests threw them crumbs . The small , green-painted Uhlenhorst steamer lay alongside of the second landing-place . Wilhelm stepped on board , and remained on deck , staring absently into the fog or at the dim outlines of the houses on the shore . On the night of his escape from the Boulevard Pereire he had driven to the Gare du Nord , and taken a midnight train , which brought him at about six the next evening to Cologne . He was dead with fatigue when he got there , stayed the night , and went on the following afternoon to Hamburg . He had been there two days now , but had not been able till to-day to gather sufficient courage to go and see Paul . Solitude had been an absolute necessity to him ; he fancied that he who ran might read upon his brow the story of how he had lived and of what he had been guilty .