nine o'clock
with another male ? oh , dear , no ! -- with a Fran , for example -- what was the world coming to ? `` There they stood , '' she told Bob , `` the two of them , all alone on the foot-bridge , and it was after nine o'clock . If I had n't been in a hurry to get home to see that the roomers did n't set the house afire , not a soul would have seen the two colloguing . '' `` And it do n't seem to have done _ you _ any good , '' remarked her brother , who , having heard the tale twenty times , began to look upon the event almost as a matter of course . _ `` You 'd _ better not have saw them , '' -- at an early age Bob had cut off his education , and it had stopped growing at that very place .