eight o'clock
He put down his tea-cup on the mantelpiece untasted , and then said hoarsely : `` I married you because I loved you , and no man has ever regretted a thing more . '' Then he turned round , and walked slowly from the room . And Zara , left alone , felt that the end had come . A pale and most unhappy bride awaited her bridegroom in the boudoir at a few minutes to eight o'clock . She felt perfectly lifeless , as though she had hardly enough will left even to act her part . The white satin of her dress was not whiter than her face . The head gardener had sent up some splendid gardenias for her to wear and the sight of them pained her , for were not these the flowers that Tristram had brought her that evening of her wedding day , not a fortnight ago , and that she had then thrown into the grate .