the hour of two a.m.
In every woman was born a spark of Bacchic fire , which leapt up sweetly at the summons of love or crimson , shameful , at the beck of lust . There were certain conditions peculiarly favourable to its evil development ; loneliness , according to Kitty Chester , a loneliness beyond man 's understanding ... . Paul aroused himself from a reverie and remembered that he had been thinking of Flamby with a strange and lingering tenderness . The clock on the mantelpiece recorded the hour of two a.m. , and he turned out the lights in the study and made his way upstairs . He had told Eustace not to wait up for him , and the house was in darkness . Before Yvonne 's room Paul stopped , and gently opened the door . A faint sound of regular breathing , and the scent of jasmine came to him .