about eight o'clock
Her father had a three-fourths interest in a carpet-cleaning establishment on Howard Street , and her mother gave lessons in painting on china and on velvet . Ida had just been graduated from the normal school , and often substituted at various kindergartens in the city . She hoped soon to get a permanent place . Vandover arrived at Ida 's house that night at about eight o'clock in the midst of a drenching fog . The parlour and front room on the second floor were furnished with bay windows decorated with some meaningless sort of millwork . The front door stood at the right of the parlour windows . Two Corinthian pillars on either side of the vestibule supported a balcony ; these pillars had iron capitals which were painted to imitate the wood of the house , which in its turn was painted to imitate stone .