six o'clock in the evening
She was standing at a window , listlessly staring at some houses opposite , and the unlovely strip of garden which lay between her and the houses . Bridget Cookson was sitting at a table a little way behind her , mending some gloves . The sisters had been four days in London . For Nelly , life was just bearable up to five or six o'clock in the evening because of her morning and afternoon visits to the Enquiry Office in D -- Street , where everything that brains and pity could suggest was being done to trace the ` missing ' ; where sat also that kind , tired woman , at the table which Nelly by now knew so well , with her pitying eyes , and her soft voice , which never grew perfunctory or careless . ` I 'm _ so _ sorry ! -- but there 's no fresh news . ' That had been the evening message ; and now the day 's hope was over , and the long night had to be got through .