the hour of nine
But the rooms of both candidates were darkened , and the attention of the crowd was for the most part riveted upon the red blinds of the Town Hall . For Clarice , the time limped by on crutches . She barely heard the desultory conversation about her : she felt as if her life was beating itself out against those red windows . A clock in the market-place chimed the hour of nine : she counted the strokes , with a sense of wonder when they stopped . She seemed to have been waiting for a century . Across the street she could see the glimmer of a light summer dress in Lord Cranston 's apartment . It moved restlessly backwards and forwards from one window to the other : now it shone out in the balcony above the street : now it retired into the darkness of the room .