half after eight
There it had a consoling effect of not being so early ; many people were already breakfasting , and when Dan said , with his order , `` Hurry it up , please , '' he knew that he was taken for a passenger just arrived or departing . By a fantastic impulse he ordered eggs and bacon again ; he felt , it a fine derision of the past and a seal of triumph upon the present to have the same breakfast after his acceptance as he had ordered after his rejection ; he would tell Alice about it , and it would amuse her . He imagined how he would say it , and she would laugh ; but she would be full of a ravishing compassion for his past suffering . They were long bringing the breakfast ; when it came he despatched it so quickly that it was only half after eight when he paid his check at the counter . He tried to be five minutes more getting his flowers , but the man had them all ready for him , and it did not take him ten seconds . He had said he would carry them at half-past nine ; but thinking it over on a bench in the Garden , he decided that he had better go sooner ; they might breakfast earlier , and there would be no fun if Alice did not find the roses beside her plate : that was the whole idea . It was not till he stood at the door of the Pasmer apartment that he reflected that he was not accomplishing his wish to see Alice by leaving her those flowers ; he was a fool , for now he would have to postpone coming a little , because he had already come .