half past four
As one looks back on the days of great events , one wonders that the morning of them was not consciously brightened or shadowed by the happening to come . For , after many years , that morning , -- of the meeting , or the news , or whatever it was , -- dull and gray as in fact it was , seems now all glorified in memory , illumined with the radiance it bore among its hours . Jamie never could remember what he did that morning or that day . It was close to half past four by the clock ; the cashier , the other clerks , had gone ; the charwoman was sweeping . He was mechanically counting over the cash in the cash drawer -LRB- it had been counted over before by the teller , so Jamie 's count was but excess of caution -RRB- ; he was separating the gold and silver and Massachusetts bills from the bills that came from banks of other States . -LRB- These never were credited until collected , and so not counted yet as cash , but credited to the collection account ; in Jamie 's eyes , bank-bills of other States were not so honest as Massachusetts issues , any more than their merchants were like James Bowdoin 's Sons -RRB- . He was thinking , with a sadness not admitted to himself , of Mercedes ; trying to believe his judgment a fancy ; trying to see , in his mind 's eye , David 's arrival home -LRB- he had sent him off the half an hour before -RRB- , hoping even for kisses by him for Mercedes -LRB- for he grudged him not her love , but wished his the greater -RRB- .