ten o'clock
`` Joel , I wish you 'd open the shutters of your bedroom and run up the shade to the top . If ever a room needed airing and sunning , that 's the one . I 'm going to give it a good cleaning as soon as I can take the time , but this morning I 'm too busy . Annabel Sinclair 's coming for a fitting at ten o'clock and that young Mis ' Thompson at eleven . And I 'm as sure as I can be of anything but death and taxes , that Annabel will be late . '' Persis ' apprehension would have taken on a keener edge , could she have been favored at that moment with a glimpse of the patron of whose punctuality she was in doubt . Ever since eight o'clock , Diantha Sinclair had been opening the door of her mother 's room at intervals of five minutes and closing the same noiselessly , after a brief survey of the figure on the bed .