ten o’clock
He had a great deal of property in the town which was so near us , -- streets of small houses , the best-paying property -LRB- I was assured -RRB- of any . I was very anxious to come to some settled conclusion : on the one hand , not to let myself be carried away by sentiment ; on the other , not to allow my strongly roused feelings to fall into the blank of routine , as his had done . I was seated one evening in my own sitting-room , busy with this matter , -- busy with calculations as to cost and profit , with an anxious desire to convince him , either that his profits were greater than justice allowed , or that they carried with them a more urgent duty than he had conceived . It was night , but not late , not more than ten o'clock , the household still astir . Everything was quiet , -- not the solemnity of midnight silence , in which there is always something of mystery , but the soft-breathing quiet of the evening , full of the faint habitual sounds of a human dwelling , a consciousness of life about . And I was very busy with my figures , interested , feeling no room in my mind for any other thought . The singular experience which had startled me so much had passed over very quickly , and there had been no return .