about nine o'clock
returned Harry , with a roar of laughter . `` Now my declaration was very different from yours . It was made when Maude and I were walking home from church . It was about nine o'clock , and the streets were bathed in mellow moonlight . I declared myself because I could not help myself . I had no intention of doing so when I started out earlier in the evening , but the uplifting effect of the service of song at church , combined with the most romantic kind of a moon , forced me into it . I told her I was a struggler ; that I was not yet able to support a wife ; and that while I did not wish to ask any pledge from her , I could not resist telling her that I loved her with all my heart and soul . ''