two o'clock
He had come first always ; he realized this with the sinking of heart which even the most dutiful son may feel when he sees with absolute clearness , perhaps for the first time , that he must have accepted , almost unknowingly , many sacrifices from his mother . He hoped , with a boyish remorse and a boyish simple-heartedness , that she understood everything now , and that somewhere , not very far off , she would be able to see into his heart and know positively how much he had loved her . He had always accepted in simple faithfulness the statement that those who were gone ` knew now , ' as the phrase runs ; and it comforted him to think that all he might have said to her when she was alive was clearly understood by his mother at last . By two o'clock the big house was empty of guests and given over to silence , or to the sound of hushed footsteps about the stairs , or to the weeping of maids as they assembled in little groups in the corridors and spoke with sobs of the mistress whom they had served faithfully . Each room that had lately given up its tenant showed a disordered interior , with paper strewn here and there . Or some maid left behind to pack her mistress 's heavier luggage could be seen kneeling before open trunks and deftly arranging their contents . A grey-haired butler approached his master when the last of the carriages had driven away , and begged him to eat some luncheon , and informed him that Miss Erskine was still in the library .