nine o'clock
`` Why , Father , how you do talk ! '' reproved Mrs. Littell comfortably . `` I 'll call up the station while the girls are upstairs and then Betty shall call the Willard , or you do it for her , and then perhaps we can eat dinner before the souffle is quite ruined . '' The girls took Betty upstairs to a luxurious suite of rooms they shared , and when she had bathed her face and hands and brushed her hair , they came down to find that Mr. Littell had called up the Union Station and discovered that because of a freight wreck the Vermont express had been delayed and would not be in before nine o'clock that night . `` So our Betty is probably having a comfortable dinner on the train , '' he announced . `` Now just a minute , and I 'll have the Willard for the other Betty . We 'll tell your uncle you are safe and that we 'll bring you into Washington to-night . ''