nine o'clock
But in ten minutes they had exhausted it . An engagement of a girl known to both of them had just been announced . Condy brought that up , and kept conversation going for another twenty minutes , and then filled in what threatened to be a gap by telling her stories of the society reporters , and how they got inside news by listening to telephone party wires for days at a time . Travis ' condemnation of this occupied another five or ten minutes ; and so what with this and with that they reached nine o'clock . Then decidedly the evening began to drag . It was too early to go . Condy could find no good excuse for taking himself away , and , though Travis was good-natured enough , and met him more than half-way , their talk lapsed , and lapsed , and lapsed .