a
quarter past eleven
And as he lingered pleasurably over this uncertainty of choice , he ended by mingling and confounding his two anxieties -- the real one for Elena and the imaginary one for Maria . A clock near by struck in the silence with a clear vibrating sound , and each stroke seemed to break something crystalline in the air . The clock of the Trinità de ' Monti responded to the call , and after that the clock of the Quirinal -- then others faintly out of the distance . It was a quarter past eleven . Andrea strained his eyes towards the portico . Would she dare to traverse the garden on foot ? He pictured the figure of Elena in the midst of all this dazzling whiteness , then , in an instant , that of Donna Maria appeared to him , obliterating the other , triumphant over the whiteness , _ Candida super nivem _ .