three o'clock
and how camest thou hither so late ? '' `` I could not come before . I dared not go forth by day , lest I bore about the seeds of the distemper . The nurse came at three o'clock , and finding her patient already dead , wrapped her in a sheet , and said that a coffin would be sent at dark , and that the bearers would fetch her for burying when the cart came round , and that when I heard the bell ring I must call to them from the window and let them in . I asked why the porter should not do that , but she told me that already every person in the house had fled . My lady had fallen into an awful fright on hearing that one of her servants was smitten , and before any knowledge could have been received of it by the authorities , she had applied for and obtained a clean bill for herself and her household , and every one of them had fled . The house was empty , save for me and the poor dead girl ; and I was bidden to stay till her corpse was removed , for the nurse said she was wanted in a dozen places at once , and that she had too much to do with the sick to attend upon the dead . ''