nine
o'clock
The newspapers were read through ; it still rained heavily without ; he could not ask his wife to play a game at backgammon . `` Oh dear ! '' he sighed , reclining back upon the sofa , and there he lay for half an hour , feeling as he had never felt in his life . At nine o'clock he went to bed , and remained awake for half the night . Much to his satisfaction , when he opened his eyes on the next morning , the sun was shining into his window brightly . He would not be confined to the house so closely for another day . A few weeks sufficed to exhaust all of Mr. Parker 's time-killing resources .