about eight
o'clock in the evening
The business of the day was ended . But the streets still presented a surprising aspect , such as Florentines had not seen before under the November stars . Instead of a gloom unbroken except by a lamp burning feebly here and there before a saintly image at the street-corners , or by a stream of redder light from an open doorway , there were lamps suspended at the windows of all houses , so that men could walk along no less securely and commodiously than by day , -- _ fu gran magnificenza _ . Along those illuminated streets Tito Melema was walking at about eight o'clock in the evening , on his way homeward . He had been exerting himself throughout the day under the pressure of hidden anxieties , and had at last made his escape unnoticed from the midst of after-supper gaiety . Once at leisure thoroughly to face and consider his circumstances , he hoped that he could so adjust himself to them and to all probabilities as to get rid of his childish fear . If he had only not been wanting in the presence of mind necessary to recognise Baldassarre under that surprise !