nine o'clock
The butler 's reply took a not unfamiliar direction . The plumber , and his helper , had come and ` xperimented round : but they had not yet stopped the drip ... . Mrs. Heth ate heartily , with a desperate matter-of-factness . It was half-past nine o'clock . Nothing had happened yet , at any rate . Beside her , Carlisle had more difficulty with her breakfast , hampered by her continuing mind 's - eye picture of Jack Dalhousie , lying on his back on a floor somewhere . Might it be that , as this horror made telling so much harder , it also altered the whole necessity ?