eight
o'clock
Ah , you should have seen Octavia 's daughter , tired and little and dripping and frumpy , lift her chin and look through and through that impudent Senegambian ! He confessed afterward she looked so like somebody 's high-toned ghost that it had sent the shivers down his spine . And just when he was ready to hear the wrath that her eyes threatened she turned abruptly and walked away so regally that he found himself muttering , `` I did n't notice she was such a high-stepping lady -- '' The service entrance and Joe and the freight elevator conquered , she found herself face to face with new insolence , this time from a frowsy maid who led her grudgingly into the living-room that stretched across the front of the apartment . From ornate curtains a plump and fretful woman emerged , `` You 're fifteen minutes late -- she said she 'd send some one at eight o'clock -- but come along , sew in the children 's bedroom -- '' Felice followed through the whole untidy apartment into the narrow cluttered room . It appeared that the children were not yet dressed nor had their beds been put in order and they sat , two weedy pallid - looking mites , in the midst of a tremendous heap of broken toys and fought desperately for the possession of an eyeless , hairless carcass of a doll . A sewing machine piled high with garments was in front of the one broad window that opened on the gloomy whiteness of the court . An overturned basket , from which oozed tangled spools and myriads of buttons , lay on the floor in front of the machine .