eight o'clock
Advancing toward the fireplace with a rather slow-footed , hesitating gait , the little visitor 's attention focused suddenly on the cluttered table and she cried out with unmistakable delight . `` Why , what are you people doing with all my letters and things ? '' Then climbing up on the sturdy brass fender , she thrust her pink , impenetrable features right into the scared , pallid face of the shabby old clock and announced pointedly , `` It 's almost half-past seven . And I can stay till just eight o'clock ! '' When she turned around again the Doctor was gone . With a tiny shrug of her shoulders , she settled herself down then in a big , high-backed chair before the fire and stretched out her overshoed toes to the shining edge of the fender . As far as any apparent self-consciousness was concerned , she might just as well have been all alone in the room .