ten o'clock
`` They take a deal of disentangling . '' She asked how my ankle did . When I told her , and added that I must catch an early train back to Aber , she merely said , `` I will walk to the station with you , if I may . '' And so at ten o'clock -- after I had bidden farewell to Uncle Melchior , who wore the air of one interrupted in a long sum of compound addition -- we set forth . I knew the child had something on her mind , and waited . Once , by a ruinous fountain where a stone Triton blew patiently at a conch-shell plugged with turf , she paused and dug at the mortared joints of the basin with the point of her sunshade ; and I thought the confidence was coming . But it was by the tumble-down gate at the end of the chestnut avenue that she turned and faced me .