Two
o'clock
Nature , slovenly old hag , has been sleeping in them with every old farmer or negro or immigrant who happened to covet her ... _ _ So you see that now you 're gone I 've written a letter all full of contempt and despair . And that just means that I love you , Anthony , with all there is to love with in your _ GLORIA . * * * * * When she had addressed the letter she went to her twin bed and lay down upon it , clasping Anthony 's pillow in her arms as though by sheer force of emotion she could metamorphize it into his warm and living body . Two o'clock saw her dry-eyed , staring with steady persistent grief into the darkness , remembering , remembering unmercifully , blaming herself for a hundred fancied unkindnesses , making a likeness of Anthony akin to some martyred and transfigured Christ . For a time she thought of him as he , in his more sentimental moments , probably thought of himself . At five she was still awake . A mysterious grinding noise that went on every morning across the areaway told her the hour .