eight o'clock
At this moment it was that Mrs. Kilgore broke off her narrative with the exclamation , `` Why , Joseph , what 's the matter ? '' At her words it seemed as if every drop of blood in his body poured into his face . He could endure it no longer . He rose abruptly , strode out of the parlor , and went to his room , although it was but eight o'clock , and he had no fire there . If he had staid another moment he must have brained Silas and his wife with the poker , such an ungovernable anger boiled up in him with the sense of his causeless , shameful discomfiture . As Joseph left the parlor the eyes of Silas and his wife met each other , -- his dull with bewilderment and terror at a spectral fear ; hers keen with a definite suspicion . But even her loquacity was subdued by a real fright .