eight o'clock
Consulting his tablets , he found that he had nothing that was really of any consequence to do . There were items , but they were unimportant , transferable . He had dismissed Hilda Howe , but a glow from the world she helped to illumine showed seductively at the end of his day . He made an errand involving a long walk , and came back at an hour which left nothing but evensong between him and eight o'clock . He was suddenly aware , as he talked to her later , of a keener edge to his appreciation of the charm of Alicia Livingstone . Her voyage , he assured her , had done her all the good in the world . Her delicate bloom had certainly been enhanced by it , and the graceful spring of her neck and her waist seemed to have its counterpart in a freshened poise of the agreeable things she found to say .