six o'clock
The morning hours she passed in solitude , reading such books of devotion and serious matter as most suited the sad temper of her mind ; precisely at mid-day she and Sister Gabrielle breakfasted together in a sort of solemn state ; and at three o'clock the great landau , with its black horses and mourning liveries , stood under the inner gate . The two ladies appeared five minutes later , and by a gesture Corona indicated whether she would be driven up or down the valley . The dashing equipage descended the long smooth road that wound through the town , and returned invariably at the end of two hours , again ascended the tortuous way , and disappeared beneath the dark entrance . At six o'clock dinner was served , with the same solemn state as attended the morning meal ; Corona and Sister Gabrielle remained together until ten , and the day was over . There was no more variation in the routine of their lives than if they had been moved by a machinery connected with the great castle clock overhead , which chimed the hours and the quarters by day and night , and regulated the doings of the town below . But in spite of this unchanging sequence of similar habit , the time passed pleasantly for Corona . She had had too much of the brilliant lights and the buzzing din of society for the last five years , too much noise , too much idle talk , too much aimless movement ; she needed rest , too , from the constant strain of her efforts to fulfil her self-imposed duties towards her husband -- most of all , perhaps , she required a respite from the sufferings she had undergone through her stifled love for Giovanni Saracinesca .