nine o'clock
That night in the old Atherton mansion , while we waited for Borroughs to arrive , Kennedy , whose fertile mind had contrived to kill at least two birds with one stone , busied himself by cutting in on the regular telephone line and placing an extension of his own in a closet in the library . To it he attached an ordinary telephone receiver fastened to an arrangement which was strange to me . As nearly as I can describe it , between the diaphragm of the regular receiver and a brownish cylinder , like that of a phonograph , and with a needle attached , was fitted an air chamber of small size , open to the outer air by a small hole to prevent compression . The work was completed expeditiously , but we had plenty of time to wait , for Borroughs Atherton evidently did not consider that an evening had fairly begun until nine o'clock . He arrived at last , however , rather tall , slight of figure , narrow-shouldered , designed for the latest models of imported fabrics . It was evident merely by shaking hands with Burroughs that he thought both the Athertons and the Burroughses just the right combination . He was one of those few men against whom I conceive an instinctive prejudice , and in this case I felt positive that , whatever faults the Atherton germ plasm might contain , he had combined others from the determiners of that of the other ancestors he boasted .