About nine in the morning
The prospect , too , of meeting Dr. Green and his family , of having to explain his former sudden departure , and of running a gauntlet of inquiry concerning his marriage to the aristocratic Miss Warwick of South Carolina ; the fear that some one at Patesville might have suspected a connection between Rena 's swoon and his own flight , -- these considerations so moved this impressionable and impulsive young man that he called a bell-boy , demanded an early breakfast , ordered his horse , paid his reckoning , and started upon his homeward journey forthwith . A certain distrust of his own sensibility , which he felt to be curiously inconsistent with his most positive convictions , led him to seek the river bridge by a roundabout route which did not take him past the house where , a few hours before , he had seen the last fragment of his idol shattered beyond the hope of repair . The party broke up at an early hour , since most of the guests were working-people , and the travelers were to make an early start next day . About nine in the morning , Wain drove round to Mis ' Molly 's . Rena 's trunk was strapped behind the buggy , and she set out , in the company of Wain , for her new field of labor . The school term was only two months in length , and she did not expect to return until its expiration . Just before taking her seat in the buggy , Rena felt a sudden sinking of the heart .