three o'clock
What had happened ? Had she suddenly come face to face with that creed of theirs -- that shadowy creed which they believed in , perhaps because it seemed so unreal ! -- because the ordeal by fire seemed so vague , so far away in that ghostly bourne which is called the future , and which remains always so inconceivably distant to the young -- star-distant , remote as inter-stellar dust -- aloof as death . It was three o'clock . There were velvet-dark smears under Palla 's eyes , little colour in her lips . The weight of fatigue lay heavily on her young shoulders ; on her mind , too , partly stupefied by the violence of her emotions . Once she had risen heavily , had gone into the maid 's room and had told her to go to bed , adding that she herself would wait for Miss Westgard .