ten o'clock
The fire sank gently to its end . Janet 's cat came with tail outstretched , and rubbed itself sociably , first against Janet 's skirts , and then against Rachel . No trace remained in the little room , where the two women sat at their daily work , of the scene which had passed between them , except in Rachel 's pallor , and the occasional shaking of her hand as it passed over the paper . Then when Janet put up her papers with a look at the clock , which was just going to strike ten o'clock , Rachel too cleared away , and with that instinct for air and the open which was a relic of her Canadian life , and made any closed room after a time an oppression to her , she threw a cloak over her shoulders , and went out again to breathe the night . There was a young horse who , on the previous day , had needed the vet . She went across the yard to the stable to look at him . All was well with the horse , whose swollen hock had been comfortably bandaged by Hastings before he left .