One o'clock
Then she ran to the window . `` Oh , just look at the figure he cuts down in the street ! '' The two women leaned upon the wrought-iron window rail in the shadow of the curtains . One o'clock struck . The Avenue de Villiers was deserted , and its double file of gas lamps stretched away into the darkness of the damp March night through which great gusts of wind kept sweeping , laden with rain . There were vague stretches of land on either side of the road which looked like gulfs of shadow , while scaffoldings round mansions in process of construction loomed upward under the dark sky . They laughed uncontrollably as they watched Muffat 's rounded back and glistening shadow disappearing along the wet sidewalk into the glacial , desolate plains of new Paris .