six o'clock
Why should we have tramped so many miles for this . It seemed to me that Mattia would have a poor idea of my friends , and that when I should speak to him of Lise he would not listen to me with the same interest . And I wanted him very much to like Lise . The cold welcome that the aunt had given us did not encourage me to return to the house , so at a little before six o'clock , Mattia , Capi , and I went to the entrance of the mine to wait for Alexix . We had been told by which gallery the miners would come out , and a little after six we began to see in the dark shadows of the gallery some tiny lights which gradually became larger . The miners , with lamp in hand , were coming up into the day , their work finished . They came on slowly , with heavy gait , as though they suffered in the knees .