four o'clock
It was impossible to say . Maria Macapa , the Mexican woman who took care of the lodgers ' rooms , had been the first to call the flat 's attention to the affair , spreading the news of it from room to room , from floor to floor . Of late she had made a great discovery ; all the women folk of the flat were yet vibrant with it . Old Grannis came home from his work at four o'clock , and between that time and six Miss Baker would sit in her room , her hands idle in her lap , doing nothing , listening , waiting . Old Grannis did the same , drawing his arm-chair near to the wall , knowing that Miss Baker was upon the other side , conscious , perhaps , that she was thinking of him ; and there the two would sit through the hours of the afternoon , listening and waiting , they did not know exactly for what , but near to each other , separated only by the thin partition of their rooms . They had come to know each other 's habits . Old Grannis knew that at quarter of five precisely Miss Baker made a cup of tea over the oil stove on the stand between the bureau and the window .