eight o'clock
Hetty 's mood changed again suddenly to one of mutiny , and she rose to her feet . `` You have n't got any right to interfere with me anyway , Susanna ; and if you think it 's your duty to tell tales , you 'll only make matters worse '' ; and so saying she took her basket and fled across the fields like a hunted hare . That evening , as Hetty left the infirmary , where she had been sent with a bottle of liniment for the nursing Sisters , she came upon Nathan standing gloomily under the spruce trees near the back of the building . It was eight o'clock and quite dark . It had been raining during the late afternoon and the trees were still dripping drearily . Hetty came upon Nathan so suddenly , that , although he had been in her thoughts , she gave a frightened little cry when he drew her peremptorily under the shadow of the branches . The rules that govern the Shaker Community are very strict , but in reality the true Believer never thinks of them as rules , nor is trammeled by them .