half past eight
Orsino necessarily led a monotonous life , though , his occupation was an absorbing one . Very early in the morning he was with Contini where the building was going on . He then passed the hot hours of the day in the office , which , as before , had been established in one of the unfinished houses . Towards evening , he went down into the city to his home , refreshed himself after his long day 's work , and then walked or drove until half past eight , when he went to dinner in the garden of a great restaurant in the Corso . Here he met a few acquaintances who , like himself , had reasons for staying in town after their families had left . He always sat at the same small table , at which there was barely room for two persons , for he preferred to be alone , and he rarely asked a passing friend to sit down with him . On a certain hot evening in the beginning of August he had just taken his seat , and was trying to make up his mind whether he were hungry enough to eat anything or whether it would not be less trouble to drink a glass of iced coffee and go away , when he was aware of a lank shadow cast across the white cloth by the glaring electric light .