eleven o'clock
`` I 'm not sending Miss Betty 's , '' she said -- `` it 'll teach her not to clear out of the way again . '' Mrs. Bruce put her head out of the kitchen window -- she had not had `` time '' for any breakfast yet beyond a cup of tea . `` Send Betty home again , '' she said ; `` she _ sha n't _ go to school till her work 's done . '' But even at eleven o'clock no Betty had arrived . Mary , who had done all the washing-up -- and done some of it very badly -- was sent by her mistress to strip Betty 's bed and leave it to air . And she found the note on the pincushion , and after reading it through twice , carried it in open-eyed amazement to her mistress , who was eating a peach as she sat on the verandah edge , and merely said , `` Very well , give it to your master . '' So Mr. Bruce took it , and opened it very leisurely , and then started and said : `` Ye gods ! ''