nearly nine o'clock
On the contrary , no reasonable doubt could exist that the real murderer was the Indian who had been found among the bushes . The men who knew him spoke of him as passionate , brutal , more than half-savage -- there was perfect fitness between his appearance and character , and the barbarous manner of his crime . And yet while everybody spoke of him as undoubtedly guilty , almost everybody had a thought of Clarkson haunting his mind , and an uneasy desire to find out the truth , entirely incompatible with the clearness of the circumstantial evidence . It was already nearly nine o'clock when Margery going from the Cottage to Mr. Leigh 's , on some errand to his housekeeper , brought back with her the story which a passing acquaintance had carried so far . She came into the parlour full of the not unpleasant sensation of having a piece of strange and horrible news to tell . Mrs. Costello had left the room for a moment and Lucia was alone , sitting rather drearily looking into the fire , with her work fallen into her lap , when Margery came in . `` Miss Lucia , there 's an awful thing happened . ''