ten in the evening
These lapses grew more frequent , until there occurred that which was one of the strange things of his life . It was a June night , a little more than two years after his return to Canaan , and the Tocsin had that day announced the approaching marriage of Eugene Bantry and his employer 's daughter . Joe ate nothing during the day , and went through his work clumsily , visiting the bedroom shelf at intervals . At ten in the evening he went out to have the jug refilled , but from the moment he left his door and the fresh air struck his face , he had no clear knowledge of what he did or of what went on about him until he woke in his bed the next morning . And yet , whatever little part of the soul of him remained , that night , still undulled , not numbed , but alive , was in some strange manner lifted out of its pain towards a strange delight . His body was an automaton , his mind in bondage , yet there was a still , small consciousness in him which knew that in his wandering something incredible and unexpected was happening . What this was he did not know , could not see , though his eyes were open , could not have told himself any more than a baby could tell why it laughs , but it seemed something so beautiful and wonderful that the night became a night of perfume , its breezes bearing the music of harps and violins , while nightingales sang from the maples that bordered the streets of Canaan .