two o'clock
Mercedes ' dynasty had ended . She knew it before St. Clair was conscious of it , and poor Jamie knew it when she did . It was his custom to stay late at the bank , after hours . It closed at two o'clock ; and in those days all merchants then went home to their dinner . Jamie , unknown to the cashier , would assume what he could of St. Clair 's work , to get him home the sooner to Mercedes . It is to be hoped he always went there . As one looks back on the days of great events , one wonders that the morning of them was not consciously brightened or shadowed by the happening to come .