nearly
nine o'clock
but I wish she were going to marry a man that one could trust , like my father , or like -- Maurice . '' She always called him Maurice when she thought about him now . It took all the strength that she possessed , however , to go through the ordeal of those hours with Ethel . She managed to keep away until nearly nine o'clock on Monday night , and then -- just after her father had gone out -- she received a peremptory little note from Ethel . `` Why do n't you come ? You said you would come almost directly after dinner , and it is ever so late now . Oliver has just left me : he has business in the city , so I shall not see him again until to-morrow .