three minutes before
nine
It was very seldom that anybody remembered to wind up the kitchen-clock since Marie went . Her own little watch was at the jeweller 's in New Sanderson for repairs . She had nothing to depend on except the dining-room clock , which , to her great comfort , so often gained . She decided that she might wait until ten minutes of nine by that clock before she gave up hope , but the next time she went trembling out to look at it it was only three minutes before nine . Then it occurred to her that her father might easily have had an errand at one of the stores before coming home . The post-office would be closed ; she had no hope for that , but he might have had some business . She thought that she might allow until half-past nine before she entirely gave up her father having come on the eight-seventeen train .