a quarter to two o'clock
For nearly six months Salome had counted the weeks and days , -- had waited and hoped for the hour of Dr. Grey 's return as the happiest of her life , -- had imagined his greeting , the bright , steady glow in his fine eyes , the warm , cordial pressure of his white hand , the friendly tones of his pleasant voice ; for , though he had failed to bid her good-by , fate could not cheat her out of the interview that must follow his arrival . Fancy had painted so vividly all the incidents that would characterize this longed-for greeting , that she had lived it over a thousand times ; and , now that the meeting seemed actually at hand , she asked herself whether it were possible that disappointment could pour one poisonous drop into the brimming draught of joy that rose foaming in amber bubbles to her parched lips . In the profound silence that pervaded the darkened room , the ticking of the watch was annoyingly audible , and seemed to Salome 's strained and excited nerves so unusually loud that she feared it might disturb the sleeper . At a quarter to two o'clock she went to the hearth and noiselessly renewed the fire , laying two fresh pieces of oak across the shining brass andirons , whose feet represented lions ' heads . She swept the hearth , arranged some vials that were scattered on the dressing-table , and gave a few improving touches to a vase filled with white and orange crocuses , then crept back to the bedside and again picked up the watch . It still lacked fifteen minutes of two , and , looking more closely , she found that it had stopped . Tossing it into a hollow formed by the folds of the coverlid , and repressing an impatient ejaculation , she listened for the sound of the railroad whistle , which , though muffled by distance , had not failed to reach her every day during the past week .