six o'clock
One glance showed her that it contained a cheque . She tore it across and across , and was in time to place the fragments on the seat beside Lady Caroline , just before the carriage was driven away . She went back into the house with raised head and flaming cheeks , too angry and annoyed to settle down to work , too much hurt to be anything but restless and preoccupied . The reaction did not set in for some hours ; but by six o'clock , when the children were all out of doors and her stepmother had gone to visit a friend , and Janetta had the house to herself , she lay down on a couch in the drawing-room with a feeling of intense exhaustion and fatigue . She was too tired almost to cry , but a tear welled up now and then , and was allowed to trickle quietly down her pale cheek . She was utterly wretched and depressed : the world seemed a dark place to her , especially when she considered that she had already lost one friend whom she had so long and so tenderly loved , and that she was not unlikely to lose another . For Wyvis might blame her -- _ would _ blame her , probably -- for what she had said to Lady Caroline .