about nine o'clock
`` Well , I shall have to try again myself ... . I must turn off here . Good luck ! '' -LRB- IV -RRB- Gertie was sitting alone in the kitchen about nine o'clock that night -- alone , that is to say , except for the sleeping ` Erb , who , in a cot at the foot of his mother 's bed , was almost invisible under a pile of clothes , and completely negligible as a witness . Mrs. Partington , with the other two children , was paying a prolonged visit in Mortimer Road , and the Major , ignorant of this fact , was talking big in the bar of the `` Queen 's Arms '' opposite the Men 's Club of the Eton Mission . Gertie was enjoying herself just now , on the whole . It is true that she had received some chastisement yesterday from the Major ; but she had the kind of nature that preferred almost any sensation to none .