eight o'clock
Looking with untrained eyes into the future , he saw no way in which a man who had failed to tell a lady that he hoped to see her again soon was ever to retrieve his error . It was good-by , Charles Weyland , for sure . However , Miss Weyland herself resolved all these perplexities by appearing at Mrs. Paynter 's supper-table before the month was out ; and this exploit she repeated at least once , and maybe twice , during the swift winter that followed . * * * * * On January 14 , or February 23 , or it might have been March 2 , Queed unexpectedly reentered the dining-room , toward eight o'clock , with the grave announcement that he had a piece of news . Sharlee was alone in the room , concluding the post-prandial chores with the laying of the Turkey-red cloth . She was in fickle vein this evening , as it chanced ; and instead of respectfully inquiring the nature of his tidings , as was naturally and properly expected of her , she received the young man with a fire of breezy inconsequentialities which puzzled and annoyed him greatly . She admitted , without pressure , that she had been hoping for his return ; had in fact been dawdling over the duties of the dining-room on that very expectation .