nearly nine o'clock
`` How late you are ! '' he exclaimed , coming to help me out before Sir Ralph , or a very handsome young man who was the manager of the hotel , had time to do it . `` I 've been expecting you for the last two hours . Do you know that it 's nearly nine o'clock ? I began to be afraid something had happened . '' `` What a pity you did n't think of that in Milan ! '' snapped Beechy .