half past nine
`` I mean that when I 'm so reasonable , you must try to be reasonable on your side . '' `` Well , I will . '' As they drew up in front of the New Netherlands Club , he escaped without committing himself further . If he dined with a bachelor friend that night he must have cut the evening short , for at half past nine he re-entered the back drawing-room where Letty was sitting before the fire , her red book in her lap . She sat as a lover stands at a tryst as to which there is no positive engagement . To fortify herself against disappointment she had been trying to persuade herself that he would n't come , and that she did n't expect him . He came , but he came as a man who has something on his mind .