seven o'clock
`` May I return this evening ? '' he said to Brauner . `` Always glad to see our friends , '' answered Brauner with a shamefaced , apologetic look at Otto . At seven o'clock that evening Otto , just closing his shop , saw Mr. Feuerstein and Hilda pass on their way toward Tompkins Square . A few minutes later Sophie came along . She paused and tried to draw him into conversation . But he answered briefly and absently , gradually retreating into the darkness of his shop and pointedly drawing the door between him and her .