nine o'clock
At any moment , as it seemed , a hand from within might stretch out to lower those blinds ... Could one live through the moment that saw them fall ? Pixie leaned back in her seat , and lived dreamily over the happenings of the last three days . The morning after the accident the three visitors had made haste to pack , and depart in different directions -- Honor and Robert Carr to town , Stanor Vaughan to friends at the other side of the county . Honor had relied on Robert 's escort , but he had hurried off by the nine o'clock train , excusing himself on the score of urgent business , which fact added largely to the girl 's depression . It was four , o'clock . All day long Pixie had been alone , unneeded , unobserved , for Joan refused to leave the nursery floor , even for meals , and Geoffrey remained by her side . Looking back over the whole course of her life , the girl could not remember a time when she had been so utterly thrown on herself .