eleven
o'clock
She walked to a street crossing , where she dropped the envelope into a letter-box on a lamppost , and returned to find Arnaud Hallet waiting for her . He said : `` Everyone agrees I 'm serious , but actually you are worse than the Assembly . '' They went through the dining-room to the garden , and sat on the stone step of a deep window . It was quite late , perhaps eleven o'clock , and the fireflies , slowly rising into the night , had vanished . Linda was cool and remote and grave , silently repeating and weighing the phrases of her letter to Pleydon . She realized that Arnaud Hallet was coming to like her a very great deal ; but she gave this only the slightest attention . She liked him , really , and that dismissed him from serious consideration .