two
o'clock
he thought . `` She would not join them for a day 's pleasure because she thought I could not go , and she is having a lonely time of it at home . '' Back to the city Jack posted in all haste , and although the hour was late when he reached there -- the clocks in the belfries sounding the hour of nine -- still he could not refrain from stopping a moment at the cottage , just to let Dorothy know how cruelly fate had tricked him . To his great consternation , he learned there , from the lady who kept the boarding-house , that Dorothy -- his Dorothy -- had left the house at two o'clock that afternoon with handsome Mr. Langdon , and that they had started for Staten Island for a day 's outing . He stood quite still , stupefied with amazement too great for words , and a white , awful horror broke over his face and shone in his eyes . `` Tell me about him again ! '' he cried , hoarsely .