about nine
o’clock
Leatherhead is about twelve miles from Maybury Hill . The scent of hay was in the air through the lush meadows beyond Pyrford , and the hedges on either side were sweet and gay with multitudes of dog-roses . The heavy firing that had broken out while we were driving down Maybury Hill ceased as abruptly as it began , leaving the evening very peaceful and still . We got to Leatherhead without misadventure about nine o'clock , and the horse had an hour 's rest while I took supper with my cousins and commended my wife to their care . My wife was curiously silent throughout the drive , and seemed oppressed with forebodings of evil . I talked to her reassuringly , pointing out that the Martians were tied to the pit by sheer heaviness , and at the utmost could but crawl a little out of it ; but she answered only in monosyllables . Had it not been for my promise to the innkeeper , she would , I think , have urged me to stay in Leatherhead that night .