nine o'clock
`` We have n't Mr Burnet and Cousin Betsey here very often , Mr Maxwell . You might stay to-night for their sakes . '' So he stayed , and the squire had a good time still , and so had all the rest , it seemed , for they were in no haste to leave the table till Sally came to take the things away . When she came in again it was to say that `` Ben had been waiting for his Aunt Betsey for the biggest part of an hour , and it was getting on for nine o'clock . '' Even then Miss Betsey seemed in no hurry to go , but when she went , Mr Burnet went also , and Elizabeth went out of the room with her cousin , and did not come back for what seemed to Katie a long time . Her father was tired and she went out with him afterward . Mr Maxwell talked with Katie a while , about her mother and her grandparents , about Davie and his bees , and the work that had occupied him all the winter , and then he sat for a long time looking into the fire in silence .