eight o'clock
`` I guess I 'm absurdly early , but I thought I ought to give the young lady an opportunity to get acquainted with me before starting out alone with me in a taxi . '' `` Are we ever acquainted with any one ? '' the girl parried ; and a moment later the conversation shifted to meet the entrance of Mrs. Maitland . Shortly before eight o'clock they set forth for the theater . It was the evening of the twenty-first of February , and the following day , Sunday , was also a holiday in memory of a great man . It was of him that they chanced to speak , almost on entering their conveyance . `` I 'm glad to-morrow is a holiday , '' said Smith .