nine
o'clock
I shall be here in plenty of time . Good night . '' When Guido pressed his hand , it was icy cold . On the following morning Lamberti went out early , and before nine o'clock he was in the private study of a famous physician , who was a specialist for diseases of the nerves . Lamberti had never seen him and had not asked for an appointment , for the simple reason that his visit was spontaneous and unpremeditated . He had spent a wretched night , and it suddenly struck him that he might be ill . As he had never been ill in his life except from two or three wounds got in fight , he had been slow to admit that anything could be wrong with his physical condition .