eleven
o'clock
It was sometimes said in the town that if one of the Heath twins strained her eyes , the other one was obliged at once to put on glasses ; and it is not to be supposed that two sisters whose sympathies were so delicately attuned would consent to appear clad one in new silk and the other in old alpaca . In spite of their early rising that morning , it was quite ten o'clock before Miss Priscilla and Miss Amelia had brought the house into the state of speckless nicety that would not shame the lustrous things that were so soon to be sheltered beneath its roof . Not that either of the ladies expressed this sentiment in words , or even in their thoughts ; they merely went about their work that morning with the reverent joy that a devoted priestess might feel in making ready a shrine for its idol . They had to hurry a little to get themselves ready for the eleven o'clock stage that passed their door ; and they were still a little breathless when they boarded the train at the home station for the city twenty miles away -- the city where were countless yards of shimmering silk waiting to be bought . In the city that night at least six clerks went home with an unusual weariness in their arms , which came from lifting down and displaying almost their entire stock of black silk . But with all the weariness , there was no irritation ; there was only in their nostrils a curious perfume as of lavender and old lace , and in their hearts a strange exaltation as if they had that day been allowed a glad part in a sacred rite . As for Miss Priscilla and Miss Amelia , they went home awed , yet triumphant : when one has waited forty years to make a purchase one does not make that purchase lightly .