about nine o'clock
If he had raised a haughty hand and beckoned to her , she would have followed him like a dog under any conditions he chose to impose . But he did not raise his hand , and never would , because she had no attractions whatsoever . And this she knew , so smothered her sobs in her bed at night or lay awake , fevered with anticipation when there was a vague chance that he might need her for some reason and command her presence in some deserted park or country road or cheap hotel , where she could take rooms for the night as if she were a passing visitor to London . One night -- she had taken cheap lodgings for a week in a side street , in obedience to orders -- he came in about nine o'clock dressed in a manner whose object was to dull the effect of his grandeur and cause him to look as much like an ordinary Englishman as possible . But , when the door was closed and he stood alone in the room with her , she saw , with the blissful pangs of an abjectly adoring woman , that he automatically resumed his magnificence of bearing . His badly fitting overcoat removed , he stood erect and drawn to his full height , so dominating the small place and her idolatrously cringing being that her heart quaked within her . Oh !