four o'clock
A sickening terror seized her , and along the expanse of pearly mist that united earth and sky , in tke snowy fringe of ripples breaking their teeth on the shelving beach , she seemed to read the doom of her stratagem written in words of menace : `` Go where you may , but I give you fair warning you can not escape me ; and the day on which you meet that guilty vagabond , you betray him to the scouts of justice . '' Far away , among the orange groves of Louisiana , would he forget his threat , or fail to execute it ? On and on darted the train ; people laughed and talked ; a tired baby swayed from side to side on the nurse 's knees , crooned herself to sleep ; and a canary in a cage covered with pink net , broke suddenly into a spasm of trills and roulades . It was almost four o'clock when the dull roar of Niagara set the air a tremble , and the few remaining passengers left the train . The little town was unusually quiet and deserted , the tide of summer travel having ebbed ; and not until the crystal fingers of the ice fairy had built her wonderful Giralda out of foam and spray , would that of Winter tourists begin to flow . Leaving her trunk at the `` baggage room '' of the station , Beryl engaged a carriage driver to take her to the Suspension Bridge . Drawing her gray bonnet and veil as far as possible over her face , she paid the toll , and noticed that the keeper peered curiously at her , and muttered something in an undertone to a man wearing a uniform , who turned and stared at her .