seven o'clock
So that Rachel , unsuspectingly , had been spared a tremendous emotional crisis . By this time she had grown nearly accustomed to the fact of the disappearance of the money . She had completely recovered from the hysteria caused by old Batchgrew 's attack , and was , indeed , in the supervening calm , very much ashamed of it . She meant to doze , having firmly declined the suggestion of Mrs. Tams that she should go to bed at seven o'clock , and she was just dropping the paper when a tap on the window startled her . She looked in alarm at the window , where the position of one of the blinds proved the correctness of Mrs. Maldon 's secret theory that if Mrs. Maldon did not keep a personal watch on the blinds they would never be drawn properly . Eight inches of black pane showed , and behind that dark transparency something vague and pale . She knew it must be the hand of Louis Fores that had tapped , and she could feel her heart beating .