nine o'clock
To bring him to that declaration she sought so ardently , to feel his kisses upon her lips , to play the young lover 's part if it were but for a day , to this folly her vanity had driven her . And now the opportunities for words were not denied . She had spent the afternoon in the backwaters up by Shiplake ; there had been a little dinner afterwards with the old crone who served them so usefully as chaperone -- a dependent who had eyes but did not see , ears which , as she herself declared , `` would think scorn to listen . '' Amiable dame , she was in bed by nine o'clock , while Alban and Anna were lying in a punt at the water 's edge , listening to the music of a distant guitar and watching the twinkling lights far away below the bridge where the boat-houses stand . A Chinese lantern suspended upon a short boat-hook cast a deep crimson glow upon the faces of those who might well have been young lovers . The river rippled musically against the square bows of their ugly but comfortable craft . But few passed them by and those were also seekers after solitude , with no eyes for their co-religionists in the amatory gospel .