ten o'clock
Half a loaf 's better nor ne'er un . ' The sad good-byes had all been said before that last evening ; and after all the packing was done and all the arrangements were made , Amos felt the oppression of that blank interval in which one has nothing left to think of but the dreary future -- the separation from the loved and familiar , and the chilling entrance on the new and strange . In every parting there is an image of death . Soon after ten o'clock , when he had sent Nanny to bed , that she might have a good night 's rest before the fatigues of the morrow , he stole softly out to pay a last visit to Milly 's grave . It was a moonless night , but the sky was thick with stars , and their light was enough to show that the grass had grown long on the grave , and that there was a tombstone telling in bright letters , on a dark ground , that beneath were deposited the remains of Amelia , the beloved wife of Amos Barton , who died in the thirty-fifth year of her age , leaving a husband and six children to lament her loss . The final words of the inscription were , ` Thy will be done . ' The husband was now advancing towards the dear mound from which he was so soon to be parted , perhaps for ever .