two
o'clock
If he had excavated his soul he would have discovered somewhere in its deeps a wistful , appealing desire to be taken care of , to be sheltered from the inconveniences and harshness of the world . But he would not have admitted the discovery . A bachelor of fifty can not be expected to admit that he resembles a girl of nineteen . Nevertheless it is a strange fact that the resemblance between the heart of an experienced , adventurous bachelor of fifty and the simple heart of a girl of nineteen is stronger than girls of nineteen imagine ; especially when the bachelor of fifty is sitting solitary and unfriended at two o'clock in the night , in the forlorn atmosphere of a house that has outlived its hopes . Bachelors of fifty alone will comprehend me . It has never been decided what young girls do meditate upon when they meditate ; young girls themselves can not decide . As a rule the lonely fancies of middle-aged bachelors are scarcely less amenable to definition .