nearly nine o'clock
The music came again . `` It can not be possible that the wedding is just about to begin , '' he thought , `` not at this hour . '' But that was quite possible with the Carrolls , who , with the exception of the head of the family , had never been on time in their lives . It was nearly nine o'clock , and the guests had been sitting in a subdued impatience amid the wilting flowers and greens in the church , and the minister had been trying to keep in a benedictory frame of mind in a stuffy little retiring-room , and now the wedding-party were just entering the church . A sudden impulse seized Anderson . He stole inside the house , and looked and listened in the hall . Everything was dark up-stairs , and silent .