about ten o’clock
`` I 'll take the train for Aunt Mary 's to-day , and straighten out that mess in short order . '' It was Saturday , and he arranged to leave by the noon train . He laid in a heavy supply of bribes for his aged relative and of reading matter for himself , and went to the station with a heart divided ' twixt many different emotions . It was an unconscionably long ride , but he did get there safely about ten o'clock . It was a pleasant night -- not too cold -- even suggestive of some lingering Indian summer intentions on the part of Jack 's namesake . The young man thought that he would walk out to his childhood 's home , and his decision was aided by the discovery that there was no other way to get there . So he took his suit-case in his hand and set off with a stride that covered the intervening miles in short order and brought him , almost before he knew it , to where he could see Lucinda 's light in the dining-room and her pug-nosed profile outlined upon the drawn shade .