eleven o'clock
Although ordinary eyes would have been puzzled to point out what spot in that shining domain required more than the touch of a duster , the house was upturned from ceiling to basement , and received such sweeping and dusting and polishing , such scouring and scrubbing , that it was a marvel Miss Hepsy was not exhausted at the end of it . She had just turned out the parlour chairs into the lobby , and was busy with broom and dust-pan , sweeping up invisible dust , when Ebenezer brought her Mr. Goldthwaite 's letter . So much did it upset her , that he had to depart without his glass of cider , for she took no more notice of him than if he had been one of the pillars at the door . It was eleven o'clock almost ; it would take her every moment to dress and be at the depot in time ; so she had to set the chairs back into the half-swept room , replace her working garb by the green dress and the plaid shawl , take her blue umbrella and trudge off , leaving the management of the dinner to Keziah . Her frame of mind as she did so augured ill for the welcome of her sister 's children . The cars were half an hour late , and Miss Hepsy strode up and down the platform in a ferment of wrath and impatience , thinking of the dinner under awkward Keziah 's supervision ; of the sweeping and dusting and baking all to be done in the afternoon ; of the bother two strange children were sure to be ; of a hundred and one things , which brought her temper up to fever heat by the time the train puffed into the depot . From the window of a first-class compartment two faces looked out eagerly , but failed to recognize in Miss Hepsy the sister of the dear dead mother they had so lately lost .