nine
o'clock
Eleanor asked . `` Yes , I will . Make some excuse for me . '' So Miriam dined alone , or made a pretence of doing so , and at nine o'clock joined her friends . Through the evening she talked far more freely than usual , and with a frequency of caustic remark which made one or two mild ladies rather afraid of her . At half-past nine next morning , when she and Eleanor were talking over a letter Mrs. Spence had just received from Greece , a servant came into the drawing-room to say that Mr. Elgar wished to speak with Mrs. Baske . The ladies looked at each other ; then Miriam directed that the visitor should go up to her own sitting-room .