eight
o'clock
* * * * * Brandon was in his study finishing his letters . But behind his application to the notes that he was writing his brain was moving like an animal steathily investigating an unlighted house . He was thinking of his wife -- and of himself . Even as he was writing `` And therefore it seems to me , my dear Ryle , that with regard to the actual hour of the service , eight o'clock -- '' his inner consciousness was whispering to him . `` How you miss Falk ! How lonely the house seems without him ! You thought you could get along without love , did n't you ?