eight o'clock a.m.
The cards of address alone remained to nail on : they lay , four little squares , in the drawer . Mr. Rochester had himself written the direction , `` Mrs. Rochester , -- Hotel , London , '' on each : I could not persuade myself to affix them , or to have them affixed . Mrs. Rochester ! She did not exist : she would not be born till to-morrow , some time after eight o'clock a.m. ; and I would wait to be assured she had come into the world alive before I assigned to her all that property . It was enough that in yonder closet , opposite my dressing-table , garments said to be hers had already displaced my black stuff Lowood frock and straw bonnet : for not to me appertained that suit of wedding raiment ; the pearl-coloured robe , the vapoury veil pendent from the usurped portmanteau . I shut the closet to conceal the strange , wraith-like apparel it contained ; which , at this evening hour -- nine o'clock -- gave out certainly a most ghostly shimmer through the shadow of my apartment . `` I will leave you by yourself , white dream , '' I said .