nine
o'clock
`` I am glad your staying had nothing to do with that . But , '' she said , the faintest pout entering into her tone , `` you did n't come back last night and meet me , as you engaged to ! '' `` I did n't -- I am sorry to say . I had an appointment at nine o'clock -- too late for me to catch the train that would have met yours , or to get home at all . '' Looking at his loved one as she appeared to him now , in his tender thought the sweetest and most disinterested comrade that he had ever had , living largely in vivid imaginings , so ethereal a creature that her spirit could be seen trembling through her limbs , he felt heartily ashamed of his earthliness in spending the hours he had spent in Arabella 's company . There was something rude and immoral in thrusting these recent facts of his life upon the mind of one who , to him , was so uncarnate as to seem at times impossible as a human wife to any average man . And yet she was Phillotson 's .