nine o'clock
Just before leaving the castle for the ferry trip across the river that evening , I was considerably surprised to have at least a dozen brand new trunks delivered at my landing stage . It is needless to say that they turned out to be the property of Mrs. Titus , expressed by _ grande vitesse _ from some vague city in the north of Germany . They all bore the name `` Smart , U. S. A. , '' painted in large white letters on each end , and I was given to understand that they belonged to my own dear mother , who at that moment , I am convinced , was sitting down to luncheon in the Adirondacks , provided her habits were as regular as I remembered them to be . I set forth with Britton at nine o'clock , in a drizzling rain . There had been no rain for a month . The farmers , the fruit-raisers , the growers of grapes and all the birds and beasts of the field had been begging for rain for weeks . No doubt they rejoiced in the steady downpour that came at half-past nine , but what must have been their joy at ten when the very floodgates of heaven opened wide and let loose all the dammed waters of July and August -LRB- and perhaps some that was being saved up for the approaching September ! -RRB-