eleven o'clock
Relatives and friends called and departed or stayed to help . A vague murmur arose , a mingled sound of whispers and light foot-steps , the rustle of silks , and the noise of stifled weeping , and then at last silence , night , solitude , a single gas-jet burning , and Vandover was left alone . The suddenness of the thing had stunned and dizzied him , and he had gone through with all the various affairs of the day wondering at his calmness and fortitude . Toward eleven o'clock , however , after the suppressed excitement of the last hours , as he was going to bed , the sense of his grief and loss came upon him all of a sudden , with their real force for the first time , and he threw himself upon the bed face downward , weeping and groaning . During the rest of the night pictures of his father returned to him as he had seen him upon different occasions , particularly three such pictures came and went through his mind . In one the Old Gentleman stood in that very room , with the decanter in his hand , asking him kindly if he felt very bad ; in another he was on the pier with his handkerchief tied to his cane , waving it after Vandover as though spelling out a signal to him across the water . But in a third , he was in the smoking-room , fallen into the leather chair , his arm resting on the table and his head bowed upon it .