five o’clock
would this torture never end ? And yet his most ardent desire was to prolong his agony , to live long enough to embrace Clotilde a last time . If he might only be deceiving himself , as Ramond persisted in declaring . If he might only live until five o'clock . His eyes again turned to the clock , they never now left the hands , every minute seeming an eternity . They marked three o'clock . Then half-past three .