nine o’clock
She sprang up , ran back into her room , and dragging the heavy curtains shut across the windows , stumbled over in the darkness to the lounge and fell among its pillows-face downward -- groping , delving for a deeper night ... . She started up , stiff and aching , to see a golden wedge of sun on the floor at her feet . She had slept , then -- was it possible ? -- it must be eight or nine o'clock already ! She had slept -- slept like a drunkard -- with that letter on the table at her elbow ! Ah , now she remembered -- she had dreamed that the letter was a dream ! But there , inexorably , it lay ; and she picked it up , and slowly , painfully re-read it .