seven o'clock in the morning
She could recollect , however , one only thing that had escaped her vigilance , which was acquainting the pew-opener , and two or three other poor women who had weekly pensions from her , that they must , at least for the present , depend no longer upon her assistance . Nothing indeed could be more painful to her than giving them such information , yet not to be speedy with it would double the barbarity of their disappointment . She even felt for these poor women , whose loss in her she knew would be irreparable , a compassion that drove from her mind almost every other subject , and determined her , in order to soften to them this misfortune , to communicate it herself , that she might prevent them from sinking under it , by reviving them with hopes of her future assistance . She had ordered at seven o'clock in the morning an hired chaise at the door , and she did not suffer it long to wait for her . She quitted her house with a heart full of care and anxiety , grieving at the necessity of making such a sacrifice , uncertain how it would turn out , and labouring under a thousand perplexities with respect to the measures she ought immediately to take . She passed , when she reached the hall , through a row of weeping domestics , not one of whom with dry eyes could see the house bereft of such a mistress . She spoke to them all with kindness , and as much as was in her power with chearfulness : but the tone of her voice gave them little reason to think the concern at this journey was all their own .