ten minutes after four
Fifth Avenue had seemed unusually crowded even for Fifth Avenue , and the girl had fretted and wondered at the perversity of the police , who held them up just at the moment most promising for slipping through ; and why Andrews , the chauffeur , could not see that he would do better by going to Madison Avenue . She did not speak these thoughts aloud , for she had not told her mother , not from any natural love of concealment , but because any announcement of her plans for the afternoon would have made them seem less certain of fulfilment . Perhaps , too , she had felt an unacknowledged fear of certain of her mother 's phrases that could delicately puncture delight . She had been dropped at the house by ten minutes after four , and exactly at a quarter before five she had been in the drawing-room , in her favorite dress , with her best slippers , her hands cold , but her heart warm with the knowledge that he would soon be there . Only after forty-five minutes of waiting did that faith begin to grow dim . She was too inexperienced in such matters to know that this was the inevitable consequence of being ready too early . She had had time to run through the whole cycle of certainty , eagerness , doubt , and she was now rapidly approaching despair .