nine o’clock
He then strolled into the hayfield , in which there was now very little left to do , and but few hands besides his own were employed . Jessie was not there . Kenelm was glad of that . By nine o'clock his work was over , and the farmer and his men were in the yard completing the ricks . Kenelm stole away unobserved , bent on a round of visits . He called first at the village shop kept by Mrs. Bawtrey , which Jessie had pointed out to him , on pretence of buying a gaudy neckerchief ; and soon , thanks to his habitual civility , made familiar acquaintance with the shopwoman . She was a little sickly old lady , her head shaking , as with palsy , somewhat deaf , but still shrewd and sharp , rendered mechanically so by long habits of shrewdness and sharpness .