ten o'clock
He would not deny , be said , that he had heard I was coming -- he made me a little bow across the table and smiled -- and that he had hopes I might perhaps be persuaded to play . Not having a fiddle I could n't do that . I wish I could have , for I 'm instantly natural and happy when I get playing ; but the Grafin said she hoped I would play to some of her friends one evening as soon as she could arrange it , -- friends interested in youthful geniuses , as she put it . I said I would love to , and that it was so kind of her , but privately I thought I would inquire of Kloster first ; for if her friends are all as deeply interested in music as the Graf and Helena , then I would be doing better and more profitably by going to bed at ten o'clock as usual , rather than emerge bedizened from my lair to go and flaunt in these haunts of splendid virtue . After Herr von Inster came I began faintly to enjoy myself , for he talked all round , and greatly and obviously relieved his aunt by doing so . Helena let go of my ear and looked at him . Once she very nearly smiled .