eleven
o'clock
I reproached myself greatly that I had left her so abruptly that afternoon . All that night , with its almost grotesque incidents , and the terrible _ dénouement _ that followed in the early morning , still seems to me like a hideous nightmare , and is , for me at least , the most painful chapter in my chronicle . I was late for the ball , and it was destined to end so quickly that I arrived not long before it was over . It was eleven o'clock when I reached the entrance of the marshal 's house , where the same White Hall in which the matinée had taken place had , in spite of the short interval between , been cleared and made ready to serve as the chief ballroom for the whole town , as we expected , to dance in . But far as I had been that morning from expecting the ball to be a success , I had had no presentiment of the full truth . Not one family of the higher circles appeared ; even the subordinate officials of rather more consequence were absent -- and this was a very striking fact . As for ladies and girls , Pyotr Stepanovitch 's arguments -LRB- the duplicity of which was obvious now -RRB- turned out to be utterly incorrect : exceedingly few had come ; to four men there was scarcely one lady -- and what ladies they were !