four o'clock in the morning
He filled his hands with the bright gems , and let them run from one hand to the other , like streams of liquid light . Then , very slowly and carefully , he began to drop the diamonds into the open end of the chamois-leather belt . When he had dropped a few into the belt , he stitched the leather across and across , quilting-in the stones . This work took him so long , that it was four o'clock in the morning when he had quilted the last diamond into the belt . He gave a long sigh of relief as he threw the waste scraps of leather upon the top of the low fire , and watched them slowly smoulder away into black ashes . Then he put the chamois-leather belt under his pillow , and went to bed . Henry Dunbar went back to Maudesley Abbey by the express on the morning after the day on which he had completed his purchase of the diamonds .