nine o'clock
Surely never did a more helpless innocent confront such a serious problem . I was a woman , and for more than a year I had been a wife , but I had no more experience of the hard facts of material existence than a child . I thought first of the bank-book which my father had sent me with authority to draw on his account . But it was then nine o'clock , the banks were closed for the day , and I knew enough of the world to see that if I attempted to cash a cheque in the morning my whereabouts would he traced . That must never happen , I must hide myself from everybody ; therefore my bank-book was useless . `` Quite useless , '' I thought , throwing it aside like so much waste paper . I thought next of my jewels .