About ten o'clock
18th December 1917 `` Yesterday the election came off . In the evening mother and Susan and Gertrude and I forgathered in the living-room and waited in breathless suspense , father having gone down to the village . We had no way of hearing the news , for Carter Flagg 's store is not on our line , and when we tried to get it Central always answered that the line ` was busy ' -- as no doubt it was , for everybody for miles around was trying to get Carter 's store for the same reason we were . `` About ten o'clock Gertrude went to the ` phone and happened to catch someone from over-harbour talking to Carter Flagg . Gertrude shamelessly listened in and got for her comforting what eavesdroppers are proverbially supposed to get -- to wit , unpleasant hearing ; the Union Government had ` done nothing ' in the West . `` We looked at each other in dismay . If the Government had failed to carry the West , it was defeated . ''