five o'clock
and he would have been less surprised to see either of those ladies than Paolo with the account he had ordered to be made out . It was a long , pendulous , minutely itemed affair , such as the traveller 's recklessness in candles and firewood comes to in the books of the Continental landlord , and it almost swept the floor when its volume was unrolled . But it was not the sum-total that dismayed Colville when he glanced at the final figure ; that , indeed , was not so very great , with all the items ; it was the conviction , suddenly flashing upon him , that he had not money enough by him to pay it . His watch , held close to the fire , told him that it was five o'clock ; the banks had been closed an hour , and this was Saturday afternoon . The squalid accident had all the effect of intention , as he viewed it from without himself , and considered that the money ought to have been the first thing in his thoughts after he determined to go away . He must get the money somehow , and be off to Rome by the seven o'clock train . A whimsical suggestion , which was so good a bit of irony that it made him smile , flashed across him : he might borrow it of Mrs. Bowen .