ten o'clock
And at last , as an appropriate ending to such a storm , Domencio Thorner 's _ Se solitaria preghi la sera _ -- that perfect echo of the heart 's most importunate feeling , and its fluctuatons , when plangent passion sinks its voice like the sea , rocking itself to rest , and nearly finds forgetful calm ; until suddenly the old pain revives -- the pain that can not keep silence , the hunger of the heart , the everlasting sorrow -- and swells again in great and greater waves of melody . There could be no other song after that . She shut the piano with a bang , which caused the servants standing close to the door outside to jump and steal hurriedly away on tiptoe to the kitchen . Only ten o'clock ! How was she to get through this longest evening of her life ? So early , but too late now to expect anyone ; and as it grew later that faintness of her heart , that trembling of her knees , which had made her hold on to a chair for support -- that shadow which his expected coming had cast on her heart -- passed off , and she was so strong and so full of energy that it was a torture to her . Alone there , shut up in her drawing-room , what could she do with her overflowing strength ?