ten o'clock
He had no illusions about himself . `` I shall die , '' he said once to Olive when his mother was not in the room . `` My father gave me a spirit that burns like Greek fire and a body like -- like a spent shell . '' The easy , desultory lessons were often prolonged , and then the girl stayed to dinner and played dominoes afterwards with him or with his mother until ten o'clock , when old Carolina came to fetch her home . The withered little serving-woman was voluble , and always cheerfully ready to lighten the way with descriptions of the last moments of her children . She had had thirteen , and two were still surviving . `` One grows accustomed , _ signorina mia _ -- ''