seven o'clock
It was for this reason that I dreaded returning to the Hotel du Pays Bas from a walk about Utrecht , knowing as I did that the van Buren party would have arrived . I stayed out , sketching , as long as there was any light , and got a few good bits of the old town ; a shadowed glimpse of one of Utrecht 's strange canals , unique in Holland , with its double streets , one above the other ; an impression of the Cathedral spire , seen beyond a series of arched bridges ; a couple of fishermen bringing up a primitive net , fastened on four branches , and sparkling as it came out of the water , like a spider-web spun of crystal . I was careful not to appear till dinner-time ; but one is obliged in self-defense to dine early in Holland , because what seems early to a foreigner seems late to a Dutchman . At seven o'clock I went to the L.C.P. 's sitting-room -LRB- it has become a regular thing for her to have a sitting-room -RRB- , and behold , they were all assembled . Nell was plainly dressed in the simplest kind of a white frock , but Phyllis had made quite a toilet . Poor child ! I could guess why .