nine o'clock
It was awful to come home in such a condition in the dead of the night , and to be deprived of all one 's comforts . When she saw those silver things all laid out wrongly , the brushes pointing this way and that , the combs fixed in them with the teeth upwards , the bottles of perfume laid on their sides instead of standing erect , the powder-boxes upside down , she felt ready to cry her eyes out . And no one to take away her hat , to loosen and brush her hair , to get her out of her gown , to unlace her shoes ! And Nigel at nine o'clock to-morrow ! The wind roared outside . One of the hanging wooden shutters that protected the windows had got loose , and was now , at short intervals , striking against the wall with a violent sound that suggested to her a malefactor trying to break in . She knew what caused the reiterated noise ; she knew she could probably stop it by opening the window for a moment and putting out her hand .