nearly nine o'clock in the evening
The bitter humors of this prank of fate -- the things shattered which should have been whole , the things preserved which no hand but that of error had ever created . The ruthless mixture of the farcical and the pathetic ; the fire horse struck to earth by a falling wall , screaming in anguish -- and the coal heaver , carrying hurriedly toward safety a gilt and white ormolu clock . And behind all this the swaying , eddying , swirling , but inexorably onward movement of the Fire , and the muffled drum beat that served it for a pulse ; behind all this the Fire 's voice , the low , purring , sinister roar which never ceased and which was deeper than the sound of any surges on any shore ; behind all this the valley of the shadow , with its grim processional of life and fear and death , a processional spurred and driven to a speed which never slackened , under the wind which for twenty hours had hardly tired , but had blown so steadfastly that to the people of the city it seemed to be what in reality it must have been -- the breath of God out of the north . It was nearly nine o'clock in the evening when there came a ring at the Maitlands ' doorbell . It had not been the easiest waiting in the world , that of the two women in the half-deserted apartment building through the long night and longer day . Helen would have preferred to go out of doors , feeling that there she could see and follow , at a distance at least , the progress of the conflagration ; but Mrs. Maitland in a strange and unlooked-for obstinacy absolutely declined to leave the apartment or to permit her daughter to do so . `` I do n't know anything about fires , but if this one starts in this direction I want to be here , and not away somewhere , '' she repeated to her daughter 's urging ; nor could she be induced to take any other viewpoint .