four o'clock
`` My news ca n't be broken . '' `` Why ? '' `` Smashed , rather . '' At four o'clock the morning of the arrival , Lilly was up , moving with the aimlessness of great nervousness about the apartment . At that same hour Mrs. Becker was emerging backward from her sleeper , kimono-clad , and bulging through the curtains into the dark aisle . `` Carrie , '' her husband whispered after her , jutting his head out with a turtle 's dart , `` it 's only three o'clock , Eastern time . Why are you getting up ? ''