seven minutes past nine
Would she relax a little , and work like common secretaries ? Or , -- and I whistled as I thought of it , -- having once done so , would she permanently cut loose from the absurdities enjoined upon her by the House of Martha people , and look at me and talk to me in the free , honest , ingenuous , frank , sincere , and thoroughly sensible manner in which she had spoken to me the day before ? After revolving these questions in my mind for some time , another one rudely thrust itself upon me : would she come at all ? It was already seven minutes past nine ; she had never been so late . Now that I came to think of it , this would be the most natural result of the wasp business . The thought shocked me . I ceased to walk up and down my study , and stopped whistling .