ten o’clock
`` He would be happy anywhere . I have no doubt he is happy now , with his poor little throat in a state -- '' she dropped her voice as her brother came in , and Mark let us know that , as a matter of course , Mrs. Ambient would not appear . It was true that Dolcino had developed diphtheritic symptoms , but he was quiet for the present , and his mother was earnestly watching him . She was a perfect nurse , Mark said , and the doctor was coming back at ten o'clock . Our dinner was not very gay ; Ambient was anxious and alarmed , and his sister irritated me by her constant tacit assumption , conveyed in the very way she nibbled her bread and sipped her wine , of having `` told me so . '' I had had no disposition to deny anything she told me , and I could not see that her satisfaction in being justified by the event made poor Dolcino 's throat any better . The truth is that , as the sequel proved , Miss Ambient had some of the qualities of the sibyl , and had therefore , perhaps , a right to the sibylline contortions .