seven in the
morning
I had hardly left the house , so to speak , when Rita was down with her maid behaving as if the house did really still belong to her ... `` What time was it ? '' I managed to ask . And with the words my life itself was being forced out through my lips . But Therese , not noticing anything strange about me , said it was something like half-past seven in the morning . The `` poor sinner '' was all in black as if she were going to church -LRB- except for her expression , which was enough to shock any honest person -RRB- , and after ordering her with frightful menaces not to let anybody know she was in the house she rushed upstairs and locked herself up in my bedroom , while `` that French creature '' -LRB- whom she seemed to love more than her own sister -RRB- went into my salon and hid herself behind the window curtain . I had recovered sufficiently to ask in a quiet natural voice whether Doña Rita and Captain Blunt had seen each other . Apparently they had not seen each other .