About ten o'clock
The melting ice in the river was streaked in strange curves , and the bare trees along the straight heights of the Palisades were blurred by a faint bluish mist , out of which white lights and yellow ones peered like eyes . `` Does n't it seem cruel to be so happy when Mama and poor Mr. Farron -- '' Mathilde began . `` It 's the only lesson to learn , '' he answered -- `` to be happy while we are young and together . '' About ten o'clock Mr. Lanley left her at home , and she tiptoed up-stairs and hardly dared to draw breath as she undressed for fear she might wake her unhappy mother on the floor below her . She had resolved to wake early , to breakfast with her mother , to ask to be allowed to accompany her to the hospital ; but it was nine o'clock when she was awakened by her maid 's coming in with her breakfast and the announcement not only that Mrs. Farron had been gone for more than an hour , but that there had already been good news from the hospital . `` Il paraît que monsieur est très fort , '' she said , with that absolute neutrality of accent that sounds in Anglo-Saxon ears almost like a complaint . Adelaide had been in no need of companionship .