nine o'clock
`` Come again when you can stay longer ! '' With one honest prayer in stock , and at least two purely automatic social speeches of this sort , no man needs to flounder altogether hopelessly for words in any ordinary emergency of life . Thus with no more mental interruption than the two-minute break in time , the Senior Surgeon then resumed his bitter-thoughted pacing . At nine o'clock , however , -- patroling his long rangy book-shelves , he sensed with a very different feeling through his heavy oak door , the soft whirring swish of skirts and the breathy twitter of muffled voices . Faintly to his acute ears came the sound of his little daughter 's temperish protest , `` I wo n't ! I wo n't ! '' and the White Linen Nurse 's fervid pleading , `` Oh , you must , -- you must ! ''