ten o'clock
When a man of ordinary assurance wishes to shine in the eyes of a woman , he generally succeeds at least in shining in his own . Guido was not any more self-conscious than most people , and he was certainly not more diffident of his own gifts , which he could judge impartially because he attached little importance to what they might bring him . But the categorical command to say nothing dull made it quite impossible to say anything witty , and the conversation languished a little and then broke off . It was past ten o'clock when Guido again found a chance of speaking to Cecilia . He had looked at her more often than he knew , after dinner , and had given rather vague answers to one or two people who had spoken to him . He had moved about the great room idly , looking at the familiar old portraits , and at objects he had known in the same places for years . He had smoked a cigarette , standing with his host , while the latter talked to him about the Etruscan tomb he had just discovered on his place , and he had nodded pleasantly to the sound of the old gentleman 's voice without hearing a word .