nine o'clock
Isaacs ceased speaking , and presently the waning moon rose pathetically over the crest of the mountains with that curiously doleful look she wears after the full is past , as if weeping over the loss of her better half . The wind rose and soughed drearily through the rhododendrons and the pines ; and Kiramat Ali , the pipe-bearer , shivered audibly as he drew his long cloth uniform around him . We rose and entered my friend 's rooms , where the warmth of the lights , the soft rugs and downy cushions , invited us temptingly to sit down and continue our conversation . But it was late , for Isaacs , like a true Oriental , had not hurried himself over his narrative , and it had been nine o'clock when we sat down to smoke . So I bade him good-night , and , musing on all I had heard and seen , retired to my own apartments , glancing at Sirius and at the unhappy-looking moon before I turned in from the verandah . * * * * * In India -- in the plains -- people rise before dawn , and it is not till after some weeks ' residence in the cooler atmosphere of the mountains that they return to the pernicious habit of allowing the sun to be before them .