four in the
afternoon
The street outside was narrow , too ; it ran for only a square , an old thoroughfare with old brick houses , once no more than a service alley for the larger dwellings back of which it ran . Now , perfectly retaining its quietude , it had acquired a new dignity of residence : because of its favorable , its exclusive , situation , it was occupied by young married people of highly desirable connections . Abbott , well past sixty and single , was the only person there of his age and condition . October was advanced and , though it was hardly past four in the afternoon , the golden sunlight falling the length of the street was already darkling with the faded day . A warm glow enveloped the brick façades and the window panes of aged , faintly iridescent glass ; there was a remote sound of automobile horns , the illusive murmur of a city never , at its loudest , loud ; and , through the walls , the notes of a piano , charming and melancholy . After a little he could distinguish the air -- it was Liszt 's Spanish Rhapsody . The accent of its measure , the jota , was at once perceptible and immaterial ; and overwhelmingly , through its magic of suggestion , a blinding vision of his own youth -- so different from Howard 's -- swept over Charles Abbott .