ten
o'clock
Any one might have supposed that he would have struck across to that highroad some time before reaching the city , but it was very long since Ercole had gone in that direction ; many new roads had been opened and some old ones had been closed , and he was simply afraid of losing his way in a part of the Campagna no longer familiar to him . -LSB- Illustration : `` ERCOLE LEFT HIS HOME AFTER SUNSET THAT EVENING '' -RSB- A short distance from the gate , where the inn stands that goes by the name of Baldinotti , he took the turning to the left , which is the Frascati road ; and after that he walked more slowly , often stopping and peering into the gloom to right and left , as if he were trying to recognise objects in the Campagna . Corbario was not pleased with the account given by Settimia in the letter she wrote him after reaching Pontresina with Regina and Marcello , who had chosen the Engadine as the coolest place he could think of in which to spend the hot months , and had preferred Pontresina to Saint Moritz as being quieter and less fashionable . Settimia wrote that the dear patient had looked better the very day after arriving ; that the admirable companion was making him drink milk and go to bed at ten o'clock ; that the two spent most of the day in the pine-woods , and that Marcello already talked of an excursion up the glacier and of climbing some of the smaller peaks . If the improvement continued , Settimia wrote , it was extremely likely that the dear patient would soon be better than he had ever been in his life . Folco destroyed the letter , lit a cigarette , and thought the matter over . He had deemed it wise to pretend assent when the Contessa had urged him to join Marcello at once , but he had not had the least intention of doing so , and had come back to Paris as soon as he was sure that the Contessa was gone .