seven
o'clock in the morning
If I had realized that at the time I left Colorado Springs that morning , everything might have turned out very differently indeed -- although when I try to think just what other way it _ could _ have turned out , I do n't quite know ... and I wonder , too , how much they knew , or planned , before they sent me down there ... . This much is sure : if I had n't assumed that a 70-mile trip , with a 60-mile average speed limit , would take approximately an hour and a half , and if I had realized that buying an automobile was not the same simple process as buying a nightgown , I would n't have been late for my luncheon appointment . And if I 'd been there on time , I 'd never have made the date for that night . As it was , I started out at seven o'clock in the morning , and only by exceeding the speed limit on the last twenty miles of the return trip did I manage to pull into that diner parking space at five minutes before two . His car was still there ! It is so easy to look back and spot the instant of recognition or of error . My relief when I saw his car ... my delight when I walked in and saw and _ felt _ his mixture of surprise and joy that I had come , with disappointment and frustration because it was so late , and he had to leave almost immediately .