ten
o'clock
He was silent as long as his daughter sewed and when she read he talked . Toward ten his silence would be broken by a continual sighing and yearning . The Vicar longed for prayer time to come and end his day . But he had decreed that prayer time was ten o'clock and he would not have permitted it to come a minute sooner . He nursed a book on his knees , but he made no pretence of reading it . He had taken off his glasses and sat with his hands folded , in an attitude of utter resignation to his own will . In the kitchen Essy Gale sat by the dying fire and waited for the stroke of ten .