eleven
o'clock
In our subsequent conversations , the signorina was not communicative as to how the early hours of the evening passed . She preferred to begin her narrative from the point when their solitude was interrupted . As I rely on her account and that of the colonel for this part of my story , I am compelled to make my start from the same moment . It appears that at a few minutes past eleven o'clock , when the President was peacefully smoking a cigar and listening to the conversation of his fair guest -LRB- whom he had galvanized into an affected liveliness by alarming remarks on her apparent preoccupation -RRB- , there fell upon his ear the sound of a loud knocking at the door . Dinner had been served in a small room at the back of the house , and the President could not command a view of the knocker without going out on to the veranda , which ran all round the house , and walking round to the front . When the knock was heard , the signorina started up . `` Do n't disturb yourself , pray , '' said his Excellency , politely .