Summary

In Part I, every evening, Father Schwartz wept because "the afternoons were warm and long," and because he could not achieve a perfect union with God (73). Every day at four, he heard a group of girls passing beneath his window, laughing. He prayed when he heard them, desperate for night. The street was silent at twilight. On Saturdays after confessions, however, he had to walk at the twilight hour. He would pass the pharmacy, and see the glowing store. The smell of soap made his heart ache. He tried walking on the opposite side of the street to avoid these sights and scents.

Despite his efforts, he could not escape the "madness of four o'clock" (73). He tried keeping his head down so as not to see the beauty of the sun. Staring at the carpet worsened his despair.

One day, around this...