seven o'clock
She might have done better than Captain Hibbert , but she might also have done worse . She will write to us in a few days to tell us that she is married , and to beg of us to forgive her . ' And that night Mrs. Barton slept even more happily , with her mind more completely at rest , than usual ; whereas Alice , fevered with doubt and apprehension , lay awake . At seven o'clock she was at her window , watching the grey morning splinter into sunlight over the quiet fields . Through the mist the gamekeeper came , and another man , carrying a woman between them , and the suspicion that her sister might have been killed in an agrarian outrage gripped her heart like an iron hand . She ran downstairs , and , rushing across the gravel , opened the wicket-gate . Olive was moaning with pain , but her moans were a sweet reassurance in Alice 's ears , and without attempting to understand the man 's story of how Miss Olive had sprained her ankle in crossing the stile in their wood , and how he had found her as he was going his rounds , she gave the man five shillings , thanked him , and sent him away .