half past eight
People were talking . That system of wireless telegraphy which ante-dates Marconi 's invention by ten thousand generations , had done effective service . In the remotest farm-houses it was known that Justin Ware had called on Persis Dale twice within a week . He came between half past eight and nine , so said reliable rumor , and the lateness of the hour of his arrival as well as of his departure , made only too plain the relaxing influence of city life on country-bred standards . Annabel Sinclair heard and turned faint and sick , so closely does jealousy counterfeit love . As far as Justin Ware was concerned , the news of his untimely death would have affected Annabel less than the information that the chops had not been sent from the butcher 's in time for dinner . But he was a man and that he should choose to spend two evenings in a week with another woman , after she had given him to understand that his society would be agreeable to herself , argued a decline in her powers of fascination .