ten o'clock
He had told her of his day , the happy thought of his roundabout journey with Charlotte , all their cathedral-hunting adventure , and how it had turned out rather more of an affair than they expected . The moral of it was , at any rate , that he was tired , verily , and must have a bath and dress -- to which end she would kindly excuse him for the shortest time possible . She was to remember afterwards something that had passed between them on this -- how he had looked , for her , during an instant , at the door , before going out , how he had met her asking him , in hesitation first , then quickly in decision , whether she could n't help him by going up with him . He had perhaps also for a moment hesitated , but he had declined her offer , and she was to preserve , as I say , the memory of the smile with which he had opined that at that rate they would n't dine till ten o'clock and that he should go straighter and faster alone . Such things , as I say , were to come back to her -- they played , through her full after-sense , like lights on the whole impression ; the subsequent parts of the experience were not to have blurred their distinctness . One of these subsequent parts , the first , had been the not inconsiderable length , to her later and more analytic consciousness , of this second wait for her husband 's reappearance . She might certainly , with the best will in the world , had she gone up with him , have been more in his way than not , since people could really , almost always , hurry better without help than with it .