two o'clock
She sat looking out over the waves of roofs of a city that had beaten her back at every turn , lashed her , and yet with the mysterious counterflow of oceans had carried her out a foot for every ten it flung her back . She felt full of sobs , but quiet . Strangely quiet , as if the champing machinery of her life had stopped suddenly , leaving an hiatus that made her heart ache of passivity . At two o'clock , by appointment , came Zoe ... like a blaze of light . Her eyes with her mother 's trick of iris , full of inner glow , and her blond hair so daringly boxed , set off with a droop of tam-o ' - shanter . There had been a new frock of heavy white crepe with a wide white hat for this occasion . Instead , with last-moment decision , she had come in one of the straight blue frocks , the wide patent-leather belt , a knot of orange and blue ribbon , representing her active membership in a local canteen service , at her throat .