seven o'clock
He did n't know the price of the objects in question . He brought the proprietor , an obsequious little German who , on learning my name , repeated it in every sentence . For Biddy I chose a doll that was all but human ; when held by a young woman for my inspection , it elicited murmurs of admiration from the women shoppers by whom we were surrounded . The proprietor promised to make a special delivery of the three articles before seven o'clock ... . Presently the automobile , after speeding up the asphalt of Grant Avenue , stopped before the new house . In spite of the change that house had made in my life , in three weeks I had become amazingly used to it ; yet I had an odd feeling that Christmas eve as I stood under the portico with my key in the door , the same feeling of the impersonality of the place which I had experienced before . Not that for one moment I would have exchanged it for the smaller house we had left .