nine o'clock
All the next day Gloria , dressed very daintily and looking so lovely in her expectancy that even old Jim Spalding 's eyes followed her everywhere , watched from the porch or a window or her place by the creek . She was sure that he would step out of the shadows into the sun with that familiar appearance of having just materialized from among the tree trunks ; over and over she was prepared , with prettily simulated surprise , to greet his coming . But the day passed , night drove them indoors to a cosy fireplace and lights and fragments of music which Gloria played wistfully or crashingly in bursts of impatience , and still he did not come . Mrs. Gaynor went off to bed at nine o'clock ; Gloria , suddenly absorbed in a book , elected to sit up and finish her chapter . She outwatched the log fire ; at eleven o'clock the air was chill , and Gloria as she went upstairs shivered a little and felt tired and vaguely sad . The next day she put on another pretty dress , did her hair in her favourite way , and went about the house as gay as a lark . The day dragged by ; King did not come .