half after eight
`` As all womankind loves a love-story , '' the Englishman added . `` You ought to be very successful with the ladies , '' -- turning to me . `` Not inordinately ; but I shall not fail to repeat your epigram , '' -- and I rose . My watch told me that it was half after eight ; and one does not receive every day an invitation to a dinner-dance at the Chevy Chase Club . I dislike exceedingly to intrude my own personality into this narrative , but as I was passively concerned , I do not see how I can avoid it . Besides , being a public man , I am not wholly averse to publicity ; first person , singular , perpendicular , as Thackeray had it , in type looks rather agreeable to the eye . And I rather believe that I have a moral to point out and a parable to expound .