a quarter to nine
`` If you have everything fixed by nine o'clock , that 'll do . '' Mrs. Rivers had everything `` fixed '' by that hour , including herself presumably , for she had put on a gray dress which she usually wore when shopping in the county town , adding a prim collar and cuffs . A pearl-encircled brooch , the wedding gift of Seth , and a solitaire ring next to her wedding ring , with a locket containing her children 's hair , accented her position as a proper wife and mother . At a quarter to nine she had finished tidying the parlor , opening the harmonium so that the light might play upon its polished keyboard , and bringing from the forgotten seclusion of her closet two beautifully bound volumes of Tupper 's `` Poems '' and Pollok 's `` Course of Time , '' to impart a literary grace to the centre table . She then drew a chair to the table and sat down before it with a religious magazine in her lap . The wind roared over the deep-throated chimney , the clock ticked monotonously , and then there came the sound of wheels and voices . But Mrs. Rivers was not destined to see her guest that night .