nearly nine
o'clock
They liked him , and some of them liked him for his clean young life as well as for his cleverness . His life was known to be as clean as a girl 's , and he looked like a girl with his sweet eyes , though he had rather more chin than most girls . The conductor came to reverse his seat , and Burnamy told him he guessed he would ride back with him as far as the cars to the Hoboken Ferry , if the conductor would put him off at the right place . It was nearly nine o'clock , and he thought he might as well be going over to the ship , where he had decided to pass the night . After he found her , and went on board , he was glad he had not gone sooner . A queasy odor of drainage stole up from the waters of the dock , and mixed with the rank , gross sweetness of the bags of beet-root sugar from the freight-steamers ; there was a coming and going of carts and trucks on the wharf , and on the ship a rattling of chains and a clucking of pulleys , with sudden outbreaks and then sudden silences of trampling sea-boots . Burnamy looked into the dining-saloon and the music-room , with the notion of trying for some naps there ; then he went to his state-room .