three
o'clock
At intervals he threw back his head , and then came the howls . The catastrophe -- for to me it was no less a thing -- had come upon me so suddenly that I was fairly stunned . From sheer force of habit I went over to the church and knelt before the altar ; but I could not pray ; I could only kneel there dumbly . I heard the screech of the three o'clock express coming in , and , a few minutes later , its longer screech as it departed . He had gone , then ! I was not dreaming it : it was true . Down and down and down went my heart .