thirty minutes past eight
Their arrival coincided with the dinner-hour ; the meal was held half an hour to permit them to dress . Raikes put a room at Amber 's disposal , and the Virginian contrived to bathe and get into his evening clothes within less time than had been allowed him . Sophia , contrary to the habit of her sex , was little tardier . At thirty minutes past eight they sat down to dine , at a table in the garden of the Residency . Ease of anxiety was more than food and drink to Amber ; his feeling of relief , to have convoyed Sophia to the company and protection of Anglo-Saxons like himself , was intense . Yet he swallowed his preliminary brandy-peg in a distinctly uncomfortable frame of mind , strangely troubled by the reflection that round that lone white table was gathered together the known white population of the State ; a census of which accounted for just five souls . In the encompassing , exotic gloom of that blue Indian night -- the kind of night that never seems friendly to the Occidental but forever teems with hints of tragic mystery -- the cloth , lighted by shaded candles , shone as immaculate and lustrous as an island of snow in a sea of ink -- as a good deed in a naughty world .