hours before eight
o'clock
He held her arm too much and kept saying in her thought , `` We 've got to pretend we 're decent , but we 're not . We 're a man and woman . '' But what did that matter ? Long hours before eight o'clock . On the stage Brander became a personality . A group of nondescript faces deferred to him . A woman with stringy hair and an elocutionist 's mouth , grew dramatic as he passed .