nine o'clock
For three days it was all so sweet and lovely -- perfect liberty , pure , almost paradisal . The fourth day it rained : simply rained all day long , and was cold , dismal , disheartening beyond words . There she sat , stranded in the dismalness , and knew no way out . She went to bed at nine o'clock , having decided in a jerk to go to London and find work in the war-hospitals at once : not to leave off until she had found it . But in the night she dreamed that Alexander , her first fiancé , was with her on the quay of some harbour , and was reproaching her bitterly , even reviling her , for having come too late , so that they had missed their ship . They were there to catch the boat -- and she , for dilatoriness , was an hour late , and she could see the broad stern of the steamer not far off . Just an hour late .