eleven
o'clock
It made him groan in spirit to think that it was . If he had hoped that some chance might take the decision from him , there was no such chance , in the present or future , that he could see . It was for him alone to commit this rascality -- if it was a rascality -- or not . He walked all the way home , letting one car after another pass him on the street , now so empty of other passing , and it was almost eleven o'clock when he reached home . A carriage stood before his house , and when he let himself in with his key , he heard talking in the family-room . It came into his head that Irene had got back unexpectedly , and that the sight of her was somehow going to make it harder for him ; then he thought it might be Corey , come upon some desperate pretext to see Penelope ; but when he opened the door he saw , with a certain absence of surprise , that it was Rogers . He was standing with his back to the fireplace , talking to Mrs. Lapham , and he had been shedding tears ; dry tears they seemed , and they had left a sort of sandy , glistening trace on his cheeks .