ten o'clock
Exactly how it all came about Charmian did not remember afterward ; Alston , she thought , must have prepared the way with masterly ingenuity . Or perhaps she -- no , she was not conscious of having brought it about deliberately . The fact was this . At ten o'clock that night , sitting with a light behind her , Charmian began to read the libretto of the opera to the two men who were smoking near the fountain . It had seemed inevitable . The hour was propitious . They were all `` worked up . ''