eleven o'clock
`` Nonsense , child ; not worthy ! You are the best girl in Christendom , and will make the brightest and truest wife that ever made a man 's home dear to him . '' The evening went on very happily after that : Marian at the piano , playing plaintive dreamy melodies with a tender expressive touch ; Gilbert sitting close at hand , watching the face he loved so dearly -- an evening in Paradise , as it seemed to Mr. Fenton . He went homewards in the moonlight a little before eleven o'clock , thinking of his new happiness -- such perfect happiness , without a cloud . The bright suburban villa was no longer an airy castle , perhaps never to be realized ; it was a delightful certainty . He began to speculate as to the number of months that must needs pass before he could make Marian his wife . There was no reason for delay .