five o'clock
Sylvia could not understand why , when she bade her good-bye at the driveway leading into the Hubert house , she should feel anything but a rather contemptuous amusement for the other 's insignificance , but the odd fact was that her heart swelled with inexplicable warmth . Once she yielded to this foolish impulse , and felt a quivering sense of pleasure at the sudden startled responsiveness with which Eleanor returned a kiss , clinging to her as though she were an older , stronger sister . One dark late afternoon in early December , Sylvia waited alone in the candle-lighted shrine , neither Eleanor nor her hostess appearing . After five o'clock she started home alone along the heavily shaded paths of the campus , as dim as caves in the interval before the big , winking sputtering arc-lights were flashed on . She walked swiftly and lightly as was her well-trained habit , and before she knew it , was close upon a couple sauntering in very close proximity . With the surety of long practice Sylvia instantly diagnosed them as a college couple indulging in what was known euphemistically as `` campus work , '' and prepared to pass them with the slight effect of scorn for philanderings which she always managed to throw into her high-held head and squarely swinging shoulders . But as she came up closer , walking noiselessly in the dusk , she recognized an eccentric , flame-colored plume just visible in the dim light , hanging down from the girl 's hat -- and stopped short , filled with a rush of very complicated feelings .