nine o'clock
`` Not me , sir , '' she said fervently . Hillyard remembered with comfort some words which she had spoken in appreciation of the loving devotion of her maid . `` In three-quarters of an hour , '' said Jenny ; and later on that morning , with a great fear removed from his heart , Hillyard drove Stella Croyle back to London . It was nine o'clock on a night of late August . The restaurant of the Maison Dorée in the Plaza Cataluña at Barcelona looks across the brilliantly-lighted square from the south side . On the pavement in front of it and of its neighbour , the Café Continental , the vendors of lottery tickets were bawling the lucky numbers they had for sale . Even in this wide space the air was close and stale .