ten in the morning
Then it was , as he peered across the great court to his wife 's dark wing and dark sleeping porch to see if she were still waking , that Ernestine 's remark again echoed . He dismissed it with a `` Silly ass ! '' of scorn , lighted a cigarette , and began running , with trained eye , the indexes of the books and marking the pages sought with matches . It was long after ten in the morning , when Graham , straying about restlessly and wondering if Paula Forrest ever appeared before the middle of the day , wandered into the music room . Despite the fact that he was a several days ' guest in the Big House , so big was it that the music room was new territory . It was an exquisite room , possibly thirty-five by sixty and rising to a lofty trussed ceiling where a warm golden light was diffused from a skylight of yellow glass . Red tones entered largely into the walls and furnishing , and the place , to him , seemed to hold the hush of music .