nearly ten o'clock
Therefore it is as I tell you , M'siu , I , Raoul . By the help of God . Yes . A CALIFORNIAN BY GERALDINE BONNER From _ Harper 's Magazine _ _ Copyright _ , 1905 , by Harper and Brothers IT WAS nearly ten o'clock when Jack Faraday ascended the steps of Madame Delmonti 's bow-windowed mansion and pressed the electric bell . He was a little out of breath and nervous , for , being young and a stranger to San Francisco , and almost a stranger to Madame Delmonti , he did not exactly know at what hour his hostess 's _ conversazione _ might begin , and had upon him the young man 's violent dread of being conspicuously early or conspicuously late . It did not seem that he was either . As he stood in the doorway and surveyed the field , he felt , with a little rising breath of relief , that no one appeared to take especial notice of him .