eight o'clock
She was an item in the individual lives of young people of both sexes , exciting in some hearts the bitterest envy and jealousy , and kindling the name of an all-consuming love in many others . She had earned the palm of triumph and victory all through the gay season , and now that the end was near she decided to gather all those who had witnessed her conquests abroad , within her own home and there make her retiring courtesy under peculiarly advantageous circumstances . She was to leave in a fortnight after for an extended tour through Europe . It was the fifteenth of March and the Merivales ' `` Musical '' was to commence at eight o'clock . The wind blew fiercely through the stiff , naked boughs of the giant maples , and drifted the light powdery snow madly on before it . I had been in-doors all day listening to the weird wailing of the ceaseless wind as it whistled down the chimneys and swept past the house corners . I had written and read and stitched until my eyes were wearied and my fingers numb , and it was only four o'clock , that turning-point on a March day from the sunshine to the gloaming when we women know not what to do with ourselves ; when it is too cold to go out or expect visitors , too late in the day to begin any occupation , too dark to read with any comfort , and too early to light the lamps .