about nine o'clock
For some minutes we smoked in silence , until the old man gradually dropped to sleep in his chair , after which we rose and went back to the kitchen . Even that sombre retreat now seemed cheerful after the silence and gloom of the dining-room . Presently Don Hilario got up , and , with many apologies for leaving me , explaining that he had been invited to assist at a dance at a neighbouring _ estancia _ , took himself off . Soon afterwards , though it was only about nine o'clock , I was shown to a room where a bed had been prepared for me . It was a large , musty-smelling apartment , almost empty , there being only my bed and a few tall , upright chairs bound with leather and black with age . The floor was tiled , and the ceiling was covered with a dusty canopy of cobwebs , on which flourished a numerous colony of long-legged house-spiders . I had no disposition to sleep at that early hour , and even envied Don Hilario , away enjoying himself with the Rocha beauties .