3 A.M.
Scarcely a month previous to her unexpected release from prison , Beryl had received a letter from Doctor Grantlin , enclosing one addressed to `` Sister Ruth , Matron of Anchorage '' . He wrote that his daughter 's health demanded some German baths ; and on the eve of sailing , he desired to secure for the prisoner a temporary refuge , should the efforts which he had heard were made to obtain her pardon , prove successful . As a nephew of the founder , and a cousin of the young lady for whom the `` Anchorage '' was intended as a lasting memorial , he had always been accorded certain privileges by the trustees ; and the letter , if presented to the matron , would insure at least an entrance into the haven of rest , until the prisoner could mature some plan for her future . Spurred away from X -- by the dread of another interview with the man whom she had assiduously shunned , and of being required to visit `` Elm Bluff '' and scrutinize the accusing picture , Beryl had shrouded herself in her heavy mourning , and fled from the scene of her suffering , on the 3 A.M. train Sunday morning ; ten hours after receiving the certificate of her discharge . Shrinking from observation , she refused Mr. Singleton permission to accompany her to the station house , and bade him good-bye three squares distant ; promising to write soon to his still absent wife , and assured by him that a farewell letter of affectionate gratitude should be promptly delivered to Dyce . Fortunately a stranger stood in the office and sold her a ticket ; and in the same corner , where twenty months before she had knelt during the storm , she waited once more for the sound of the train . How welcome to her the shuddering shriek that tore its way through the dewy silence of the star-lit summer night , and she hurried out , standing almost on the rails , in her impatience to depart .