About eight o'clock
Ruth was still all that she had ever been to me -- perhaps even more ; and if that had been a rich endowment yesterday , why not to-day also ? And how unfair it would be to her if I should mope and grieve over a disappointment that was no fault of hers and for which there was no remedy ? Thus I reasoned with myself , and to such purpose that , by the time I reached Fetter Lane , my dejection had come to quite manageable proportions and I had formed the resolution to get back to the _ status quo ante bellum _ as soon as possible . About eight o'clock , as I was sitting alone in the consulting-room , gloomily persuading myself that I was now quite resigned to the inevitable , Adolphus brought me a registered packet , at the handwriting on which my heart gave such a bound that I had much ado to sign the receipt . As soon as Adolphus had retired -LRB- with undissembled contempt of the shaky signature -RRB- I tore open the packet , and as I drew out a letter a tiny box dropped on the table . The letter was all too short , and I devoured it over and over again with the eagerness of a condemned man reading a reprieve : `` MY DEAR PAUL , '' _ Forgive me for leaving you so abruptly this afternoon , and leaving you so unhappy , too . I am more sane and reasonable now , and so send you greeting and beg you not to grieve for that which can never be .