nine o'clock
But it so happened that the hours of the Sabbath had grown precious to her ; none of them were dull ; every moment of them was needed . Besides , in their walk up the hill from the auditorium one evening , Evan Roberts had said in answer to a wonderment from her that so little was accomplished by the Sabbath services throughout the land : `` I think one reason is the habit that so many people have of frittering a way any serious impression or solemn thought they may have had by a stream of small talk in which they indulge with their own family or their intimate friends , after what they call the Sabbath is past . Do you know there are hundreds of people , good , well-meaning -- in fact , Christians -- who seem to think that the old Puritan rules in regard to hours hold yet , in part . It begins at eight or nine o'clock , when they have their nap out ; and at the very latest it closes with the minister 's benediction after the second service ; and they laugh and talk on the way home and at home as if the restraints of the day were over at last . '' How precisely he had described the Sabbath day of the Shipley family . With what a sense of relief had she often sat and chatted with Col. Baker at the close of what had been to her an irksome day , and felt that at last the sense of propriety would not be shocked if they laughed and bantered each other as usual . Things were different now .