nearly one o'clock
He has gone to look at it . '' Vincenzo gulped down the last of his coffee . `` I must go , '' he said , but he was much too Italian to understand that a man in a hurry need not count his change twice over or bite every piece of silver to make sure of it . It was nearly one o'clock when , having outdistanced the pack of beggars that followed at his heels through the narrow streets of the town , he came out upon the broad , tree-shadowed upper road . He had stopped for a moment in the shelter of the high wall of the Capuchin convent to light a cigarette , and thereafter he went on unseeingly , in a brown study . Had he or had he not paid two soldi more than he should have done for the packet ? A Calabrian would cheat , if possible , of course .