eight o'clock
The hissing of Mrs. Jupe 's taunting voice followed her about all that day , and late at night , when they were going to bed and the streets were quiet , and there was only the jingle of a passing hansom or a drunken shout or the screech of a concertina , she could hear it again from the other side of the plaster partition , interrupted occasionally by the sound of Mr. Jupe 's attempts to excuse and apologize for her . No matter ! Anything to escape from the atmosphere of that woman 's house , to be free of her and quit of her forever ! Toward eight o'clock on Sunday evening she went up to her bedroom to put on her hat and ulster , and being alone there , and waiting for Aggie , she could not help but open her letter from home . `` Sunday next is your birthday , my dear one , '' wrote the parson , `` so we send you our love and greetings . This being the first of your twenty-one that you have spent from home , I will be thinking of you all the day through , and when night comes , and I smoke a pipe by the study fire , I know I shall be leaving the blind up that I may see the evening star and remember the happy birthdays long ago , when somebody , who was so petted and spoiled , used to say she had just come down from it , having dressed herself in some strange and grand disguises , and told us she was Phonodoree the fairy . You will be better employed than that , Glory , and as long as my dear one is well and happy and prosperous in the great city where she so loves to be -- '' The candle was shaking in Glory 's hands , and the little half-lit bedroom seemed to be blinking in and out .