ten o'clock
Had she waited another instant -- but there , I write of what has happened and not what might have been . I did not sleep that night , until the dawn began to separate each fir tree from the black mass of the forest . Twice in the night , with shame I confess it , I opened my door and looked down the little passage-way ; and twice I closed the door and threw myself upon my bed in an agony of torment . It was ten o'clock when a knock at the door aroused me , and the sunlight through the window-pane was tracing patterns on the floor . There was a note on the breakfast table , but before I opened it I knew that , save for Babette , I was alone in the house . The note was brief , unaddressed and unsigned . I have it here before me ; I have meant to tear it up but I can not .