ten o'clock
She had made up her mind not to go to bed until the return of her brothers , and she and her mother sat in a small room that was used as a breakfast-room , and which had a latticed window that opened on to the lawn . This window had in the inside strong oaken shutters , which had been fastened as securely as their construction would admit of some time before the departure of the brothers and Mr. Marchdale on that melancholy expedition , the object of which , if it had been known to her , would have added so much to the terrors of poor Flora . It was not even guessed at , however remotely , so that she had not the additional affliction of thinking , that while she was sitting there , a prey to all sorts of imaginative terrors , they were perhaps gathering fresh evidence , as , indeed , they were , of the dreadful reality of the appearance which , but for the collateral circumstances attendant upon its coming and its going , she would fain have persuaded herself was but the vision of a dream . It was before nine that the brothers started , but in her own mind Flora gave them to eleven , and when she heard ten o'clock sound from a clock which stood in the hall , she felt pleased to think that in another hour they would surely be at home . `` My dear , '' said her mother , `` you look more like yourself , now . '' `` Do , I , mother ? '' `` Yes , you are well again . ''