ten o'clock
It was the recognition that these ties had been broken for her and all these things taken away by the woman who had taken away Richard . Presently she found herself in the suburbs , in a street where coloured children were playing in the gutter , and where the houses were unsubstantial looking as rabbit-hutches , but there was a glimpse of country beyond and she did not turn back . She did not want breakfast . If she returned to Vernons by ten o'clock it would give her plenty of time to pack her things , say good-bye to Miss Pinckney and take her departure before Richard returned to luncheon -- if he did return . It did not take her long to pass through the negro quarter , and now , out in the open country , out amidst those great flat lands in the broad day and under the lonely blue sky her mood changed . Phyl was no patient Grizel , the very last person to be trapped in the bog of love 's despondency . Abstract melancholy produced by colours , memories , or sounds was an easy enough matter with her , but she was not the person to mourn long over the loss of a man snatched from her by another woman .