a quarter before five
It was no better , no worse than the lodgings of more than two hundred thousand New Yorkers . Its one narrow opening , beside the door , gave upon a shaft whose odors were so foul that she kept the window closed , preferring heat like the inside of a steaming pan to the only available `` outside air . '' This in a civilized city where hundreds of dogs with jeweled collars slept in luxurious rooms on downiest beds and had servants to wait upon them ! The morning after Susan 's coming , Ellen woke her , as they had arranged , at a quarter before five . The night before , Susan had brought up from the basement a large bucket of water ; for she had made up her mind , to take a bath every day , at least until the cold weather set in and rendered such a luxury impossible . With this water and what she had in her little pitcher , Susan contrived to freshen herself up . She had bought a gas stove and some indispensable utensils for three dollars and seventeen cents in a Fourteenth Street store , a pound of cocoa for seventy cents and ten cents ' worth of rolls -- three rolls , well baked , of first quality flour and with about as good butter and other things put into the dough as one can expect in bread not made at home .