nine o'clock
I had told her , long before , all about Harry 's letter , and the dear girl in this walk , after a little blushing and sighing , and half faltering and half hesitating and feeling uncertain , yielded to my last and warmest persuasions , and agreed to go to Mrs. Pollexfen 's ball that evening , ready to leave it with me in my buggy sleigh , for a three hours ' ride to Topsham , where we both knew Harry would be waiting for us . I do not know how she managed to get through tea that evening with her lion of a grandfather , for she could not then cover her tearful eyes with a veil as she did through the last half of our walk together . I know that I got through my tea and such like ordinary affairs by skipping them . I made all my arrangements , bade Gage and Streeter be ready with the sleigh at my lodgings -LRB- fortunately only two doors from Mrs. Pollexfen 's -RRB- at half-past nine o'clock , and was the highest spirited of men when , on returning to those lodgings myself at eight o'clock , I found the following missives from the Argus office , which had been accumulating through the afternoon . No. 1 . `` 4 o'clock , P. M. `` DEAR SIR : -- The southern mail , just in , brings Buenos Ayres papers six days later , by the Medora , at Baltimore . `` In haste , J. C. '' -LRB- Mr. C. was the gentleman who opened the newspapers , and arranged the deaths and marriages ; he always kindly sent for me when I was out of the way . -RRB-