eight o'clock
Kitty 's journey was a perfectly uneventful one , and would have been comfortable enough but for the circumstances under which she made it . The telegram lay upon her lap , and she read it over and over again with increasing alarm as she noticed its careful vagueness , which seemed to her the worst sign of all . She was heartily relieved when she found that she was nearing Muirside : the journey had never seemed so long to her before . It was , indeed , longer than usual , for the railway line was in some places partly blocked with snow , and eight o'clock was past before Kitty reached Muirside . She looked anxiously out of the window , and saw Hugo Luttrell on the platform before the train had stopped . He sprang up to the step , and looked at her for a moment without speaking . Kitty had time to think that the expression of his face was odd before he replied to her eager questions about her father .