nearly ten o'clock
before
When Sir John 's name was mentioned -- when the interview in the library of the great London house was briefly touched upon -- Jack saw the flutter of a small lace pocket-handkerchief , and at no other time . The slate was wiped clean , and it almost seemed that Jocelyn preferred it thus with the scratches upon it where the writing had been . Maurice Gordon did not come back in an hour . It was nearly ten o'clock before they heard his footstep on the gravel . By that time Jocelyn had heard the whole story . She had asked one or two questions which somehow cast a different light upon the narrative , and she had listened to the answers with a grave , judicial little smile -- the smile of a judge whose verdict was pre-ordained , whose knowledge had nothing to gain from evidence . Because she loved him she took his story and twisted it and turned it to a shape of her own liking .