nearly nine o'clock
`` What a pity it is , Bill , that you always try and manage other people 's business for them ! '' And she did go to the station -- only to be sorry for it afterwards . Paul de Virieu , holding her hand tightly clasped in his for the last time , had become frightfully pale , and as she made her way back to the Casino , where the Wachners were actually waiting for her , Sylvia was haunted by his reproachful , despairing eyes . It was nearly nine o'clock , and for the moment the Casino was very empty , for the afternoon players had left , and the evening _ serie _ , as M. Polperro contemptuously called them -- the casual crowd of night visitors to Lacville -- had not yet arrived from Paris . `` And now , '' said Madame Wachner , suddenly , `` is it not time for us to go and ` ave our little supper ? '' The `` citizeness of the world '' had been watching her husband and Sylvia playing at Baccarat ; both of them had won , and Sylvia had welcomed , eagerly , the excitement of the tables . Count Paul 's muttered farewell echoed in her ears , and the ornately decorated gambling room seemed full of his presence .