nine o'clock
She knew she was known in the town as ` the girl who could write shorthand . ' Her situation was not ordinary ; it was unique . Again , the irregularity of the hours , and the fact that the work never commenced till the afternoon , seemed to her romantic and beautiful . Here she was , at nine o'clock , alone with George Cannon on the second floor of the house ! And who , gazing from the Square at the lighted window , would guess that she and he were there alone ? All the activities of newspaper production were poetized by her fervour . The _ Chronicle _ was not a poor little weekly sheet , struggling into existence anyhow , at haphazard , dependent on other newspapers for all except purely local items of news .