half past nine
`` All this day I have been oppressed by a curious restlessness , '' she says to Dora ; `` and , when you left me this afternoon , your vague promises of being able to elucidate the terrible secret that is weighing us down made me even more unsettled . I did not go down to dinner -- '' `` Neither did I , '' puts in Mrs. Talbot sympathetically . `` I wandered up and down my room for at least two hours , thinking always , and waiting for the moment when you would return , according to promise , and tell me the success of your hidden enterprise . You did not come , and at half past nine , unable to stay any longer in my own room with only my own thoughts for company , I opened my door , and , listening intently , found by the deep silence that reigned throughout the house that almost every one was gone , if not to bed , at least to their own rooms . '' `` Lady FitzAlmont and Gertrude passed to their rooms about an hour ago , '' says Dora . `` But some of the men , I think , are still in the smoking-room . '' `` I did not think of them .