nine in the morning
Theron opened the door noiselessly , and put in his head , conscious of something furtive in his intention . `` You must dreen every drop of water off the spinach , mind , before you put it over , or else -- '' It was Sister Soulsby 's sharp and penetrating tones which came to him . Theron closed the door again , and surrendered himself once more to the circling whirl of his thoughts . A love-feast at nine in the morning opened the public services of a Sunday still memorable in the annals of Octavius Methodism . This ceremony , which four times a year preceded the sessions of the Quarterly Conference , was not necessarily an event of importance . It was an occasion upon which the brethren and sisters who clung to the old-fashioned , primitive ways of the itinerant circuit-riders , let themselves go with emphasized independence , putting up more vehement prayers than usual , and adding a special fervor of noise to their `` Amens ! '' and other interjections -- and that was all .