nine o'clock
I have had many tokens of sympathy and of friendship this morning . Just two or three , perhaps , would have liked to be disagreeable , but they did not dare . '' He hurried away , for his guests were arriving thick and fast . * * * * * It was a strange and , or so Mrs. Otway would have thought , a rather pathetic little company of men and women , who gathered together at Manfred Hegner 's Stores at nine o'clock on that fine August night . The blinds had been drawn down , and behind the blinds the shutters had been put up . As to the people there , they all looked prosperous and respectable , but each one wore a slight air of apprehension and discomfort . Strange to say , not one of the Germans present really liked or trusted their host , and that was odd , for Manfred Hegner , apart from certain outstanding exceptions , had managed to make himself quite popular among the English inhabitants of Witanbury .