eight o'clock
Then she turned and went back into the empty house , keeping back her tears until the sound of the surrey had quite died away . Alexandra Strickland , coming down the stairway of the valley house on an April evening , glanced curiously at the door . Her eyes moved to the old clock , and a smile tugged involuntarily at the corners of her mouth . Only eight o'clock , but the day had been so long and so quiet that she had fancied that the hour was much later , and had wondered who knocked so late . She crossed to the door and opened it to darkness and rain , and to a man in a raincoat , who whipped off a spattered cap and stood smiling in the light of the lamp she held . Instantly , with a sort of gasp of surprise and pleasure and some deeper emotion , she set down the lamp , and held out her hands gropingly and went into his arms . He laughed joyously as he kissed her , and for a minute they clung together .