nearly midnight
`` I thought it might be as well . The world has grown very clever ; but after all there is no steadier anchor for a soul than a platitude . '' Ogilvy and Annan came mincing in about nine o'clock , disposed for flippancy and gossip ; but neither Neville nor Rita encouraged them ; so after a while they took their unimpaired cheerfulness and horse-play elsewhere , leaving the two occupants of the studio to their own silent devices . It was nearly midnight when he walked back with Rita to her rooms . And now day followed day in a sequence of limpid dawns and cloudless sunsets . Summer began with a clear , hot week in June , followed by three days ' steady downpour which freshened and cooled the city and unfolded , in square and park , everything green into magnificent maturity . Every day Neville and Rita worked together in the studio ; and every evening they walked together in the park or sat in the cool , dusky studio , companionably conversational or permitting silence to act as their interpreter .