nearly nine o'clock
He wished she would choose some subject of conversation and talk that he might listen . But she also was unusually silent . He cut his visit short , very suddenly , and left her , saying that he hoped to find her at home as a general rule at that hour , quite forgetting that she would naturally be always out at the cool time towards evening . He walked slowly homewards in the dusk , and did not remember to go to his solitary dinner until nearly nine o'clock . He was not pleased with himself , but he was involuntarily pleased by something he felt and would not have been insensible to if he had been given the choice . His old interest in Maria Consuelo was reviving , and yet was turning into something very different from what it had been . He now boldly denied to himself that he was in love and forced himself to speculate concerning the possibilities of friendship .