eight o'clock until three
They were sweet-tempered , gay girls , lacking their parent 's intellectual traits , but sufficiently well-informed and cultivated to constitute them agreeable companions . Of their father 's extensive library they expressed themselves rather afraid , and frequently bantered Beulah about the grave books she often selected from it . Beulah found her school duties far less irksome than she had expected , for she loved children , and soon became interested in the individual members of her classes . From eight o'clock until three she was closely occupied ; then the labors of the day were over , and she spent her evenings much as she had been wont ere the opening of the session . Thus November glided quickly away , and the first of December greeted her ere she dreamed of its approach . The Grahams had not returned , though daily expected ; and , notwithstanding two months had elapsed without Eugene 's writing , she looked forward with intense pleasure to his expected arrival . There was one source of constant pain for her in Dr. Hartwell 's continued and complete estrangement .