ten o'clock
She brought the embarrassment with her to the drawing-room , where the women sat about smoking miserably and waiting for the men to come forth and take them home . There must have been embarrassment enough left to go round the dining-table , too , for in an unusually brief while the men flocked into the drawing-room . And they began to plead engagements in offices or homes or Parliament . It was not yet ten o'clock when the last of the guests had gone , except Nicholas Easton . And Sir Joseph took him into his own study . Easton walked a trifle too solemnly straight , as if he had set himself an imaginary chalk-line to follow . He jostled against the door , and as he closed it , swung with it uncertainly .