nine
o'clock
The being able to write my age with two figures had not , after all , shed any special lustre upon life ; but when I was ` in my teens ' it must ` feel different somehow . ' So I thought . Moreover , this birthday was really to bring with it solid advantages . I was now to be allowed to read certain books of a more grown-up character than I had read hitherto , and to sit up till nine o'clock . I was to wear sandals to my shoes . My hair was henceforth to grow as long as I and the Fates would permit , and the skirts of my frocks were to take an inch in the same direction . ` In four more years , ' I said to Fatima , as we sat on the eve of my birthday , discussing its manifold advantages , ` in four more years I shall be grown up .