nine o'clock
Instinct indicated a delicate harmony between those events and the formless shadow to which Sally had all along been sensitive , of something equivocal in the pretensions of Mrs. Standish . But that clue played will-o ' - the-wisp with her fancy , leading it ever farther astray in a bottomless bog of black bewilderment . None the less , she had just succeeded in establishing to her own satisfaction the probability that her sponsor had been , if not active in , at least acquainted with the business of the signals -- reasoning shrewdly upon that lady 's high-handed treatment of Sally 's insinuation as inconsequential -- when Mr. Trego elected to appear for breakfast . That unhappy young man had been more wise if he had not taken it for granted that nine o'clock would be too early for Sally as well as for everybody else who did n't make breakfast in bed a habit ; and a more diplomatic person would have been at pains to prepare himself against that inevitable rencontre with a young woman of exacerbated sensibilities . Nothing could have been more surely predestined to ghastly failure than his cheerful assumption of a complete understanding , with the hint implicit that , having done Sally a signal service , he was willing to let bygones be bygones and take as tacit a sense of obligation not easy for her to express . `` Hel-lo ! '' he saluted the charming vision of her with undisguised pleasure and surprise .