four o'clock
Tillie gave her aunt a look of grateful affection as she left the house . Often when she longed to thank her for her many little acts of kindness , the words would not come . It was the habit of her life to repress every emotion of her mind , whether of bitterness or pleasure , and an unconquerable shyness seized upon her in any least attempt to reveal herself to those who were good to her . It was four o'clock on a beautiful October afternoon as she walked up the village street , and while she enjoyed , through all her sensitive maiden soul , the sweet sunshine and soft autumn coloring , her thought dwelt with a pleasant expectancy on her almost inevitable meeting with `` the Teacher , '' if he did indeed arrive in the stage now due at New Canaan . Unlike her cousins Amanda and Rebecca , and their neighbor Lizzie Hershey , Tillie 's eagerness to meet the young man was not born of a feminine hunger for romance . Life as yet had not revealed those emotions to her except as she had known them in her love for Miss Margaret -- which love was indeed full of a sacred sentiment . It was only because the teacher meant an aid to the realization of her ambition to become `` educated '' that she was interested in his coming .