eleven o'clock
Looking out of the window , men and women could be seen going calmly about their duties . The postman and newspaper-boy arrived at their accustomed time . No one outside the household seemed to realise that the day was big with fate . At eleven o'clock a cab drove up to the door ; the boxes were piled on the roof ; and the heroines of the hour made their appearance in the doorway , immaculately trim and tidy in travelling array . The brothers and sisters were absent at school , so there was only the little mother to say adieu , and stand waving her hand until the cab had disappeared from view . Once , she too had been young and fair , and life had stretched before her like an empty page , on which the most marvellous happenings might be enrolled . Now , she was old and harassed and poor , and there seemed little ahead but work and worry ; yet she could not call life a failure .