seven o'clock
On the forward promenade of the Saguenay boat which had been advertised to leave Quebec at seven o'clock on Tuesday morning , Miss Kitty Ellison sat tranquilly expectant of the joys which its departure should bring , and tolerantly patient of its delay ; for if all the Saguenay had not been in promise , she would have thought it the greatest happiness just to have that prospect of the St. Lawrence and Quebec . The sun shone with a warm yellow light on the Upper Town , with its girdle of gray wall , and on the red flag that drowsed above the citadel , and was a friendly lustre on the tinned roofs of the Lower Town ; while away off to the south and east and west wandered the purple hills and the farmlit plains in such dewy shadow and effulgence as would have been enough to make the heaviest heart glad . Near at hand the river was busy with every kind of craft , and in the distance was mysterious with silvery vapors ; little breaths of haze , like an ethereal colorless flame , exhaled from its surface , and it all glowed with a lovely inner radiance . In the middle distance a black ship was heaving anchor and setting sail , and the voice of the seamen came soft and sad and yet wildly hopeful to the dreamy ear of the young girl , whose soul at once went round the world before the ship , and then made haste back again to the promenade of the Saguenay boat .