eight o'clock
Mentally I addressed him as a young gazelle who had gladdened me with his soft dark eye , only to withdraw the light of that orb when it was most needed . As he apparently wished me to understand that , now he was on with Gaetà , he would fain be off with me , I would take him not only at his word , but before it . I would make an excuse to avoid stopping at the Contessa 's villa , but would let him revel there alone in his glory ; if one did not count the Di Nivolis . Next morning we met by appointment at eight o'clock , and tried to behave as if nothing had happened ; but I realised that I would have been a dead failure as an actor . I was grumpy and glum , and the coaxing , child-like ways which the Boy used for my beguiling were in vain . I did not say anything about my change of plans for Aix , but I brooded darkly upon them throughout the day , my mood eating away all pleasure in the charming scenery through which we passed , as a black worm eats into the heart of a cherry . We had about twenty-nine kilometres to go , and by the time that the shadows were growing long and blue , we were approaching Aix-les-Bains .