the hour of
ten
Drive fast . '' Mrs. Osborn watched the carriage out of sight and then walked slowly back to her work . She folded the soft white fabric over the cushions and then laid her cheek against it and gave it its first christening -- the christening of tears . The court-house clock in the centre of the town clanged the hour of ten -- hammered it out lavishly and cheerily as a lusty blacksmith strikes with prodigal arm his customary anvil . Another clock in a dignified church tower also struck ten , but with far greater solemnity , as though reminding the town clock that time is not to be measured out to man as a mere matter of business , but intoned savingly and warningly as the chief commodity of salvation . Then another clock : in a more attenuated cobwebbed steeple also struck ten , reaffirming the gloomy view of its resounding brother and insisting that the town clock had treated the subject with sinful levity . Nevertheless the town clock seemed to have the best of the argument on this particular day ; for the sun was shining , cool , breezes were blowing , and the streets were thronged with people intent on making bargains .