ten o'clock
Then as he looked into the pale bearded face before him , and the eyes which had looked into his own a few months ago with such passionate anger , he remembered all that was between them , dropped the hands and went forward to the fire . His father followed him and stood by him there as he spread his fingers to the blaze , and told him the details , in short detached sentences . She had been seized with pain and vomiting on the previous night at supper time ; the doctor had been sent for , and had declared the illness to be an internal inflammation . She had grown steadily worse on the following day , with periods of unconsciousness ; she had asked for Ralph an hour after she had been taken ill ; the pain had seemed to become fiercer as the hours went on ; she had died at ten o'clock that night . Ralph stood there and listened , his head pressed against the high mantelpiece , and his fingers stretching and closing mechanically to supple the stiffened joints . `` Mistress Atherton was with her all the while , '' said his father ; `` she asked for her . '' Ralph shot a glance sideways , and down again .