nine o'clock
You will certainly have further use for this . I am , etc. , the Man Who Dropped the Letter . '' It pained me afterward , but too late to rescind the order , to reflect that I had sent her a wedding present ; and when next I saw her she had been married for some months . The time was nine o'clock of a November evening , and we were in a street of shops that has not in twenty years decided whether to be genteel or frankly vulgar ; here it minces in the fashion , but take a step onward and its tongue is in the cup of the ice-cream man . I usually rush this street , which is not far from my rooms , with the glass down , but to-night I was walking . Mary was in front of me , leaning in a somewhat foolish way on the haw-er , and they were chatting excitedly . She seemed to be remonstrating with him for going forward , yet more than half admiring him for not turning back , and I wondered why .