nine o'clock
After a while she could hear him below , the tink of breakfast cutlery and the little passings in and out of Lena through the swinging pantry door . Then the front door closed gently , and on its click she swung herself lightly out of bed , standing barefooted behind the Swiss curtains to watch the square-shouldered figure swing across the street toward the Page Avenue car . Her energy to be up and doing suddenly unstoppered , she turned back to the room , jerking out a dresser drawer until it flew out to the floor . At nine o'clock she was still in her nightdress , sloughing about in an engagement gift of little blue knitted bedroom slippers . There were the new valise and an old dress-suitcase tightly packed and shoved beneath the bed , and over a chair a tan-linen suit inserted with strips of large-holed embroidery that had been dyed in coffee by Katy Stutz . It had originally been designed as a traveling suit for a honeymoon trip to Excelsior Springs until that project had been decided against in favor of immediate possession of the little house . `` Put that extra money into your furniture , '' Mrs. Becker had advised , to which Albert had been highly amenable .