the hour of
twelve
He had come home from college one day and had entered it a boy , and then he came out of it and down to his mother , dressed in his new uniform -- a man . Now he entered it no more , for he stayed at the camp over on the high bluff of the Wisconsin River . He was wholly taken up with his new duties there , and his room had been set in order and closed as if he were dead . Sitting there , Hester heard the church clock peal out the hour of twelve , and started . Soon she would hear the front door open and shut , and a heavy tread along the lower hall , and she would go down and sit silently at the table opposite her husband , they two alone . There would be silence , because there would be nothing to say . He loved her and was tender of her , but his word was law , and in all matters he was dictator , lawmaker , and judge , and from his decisions there was no appeal .