ten o'clock
She was pale and quiet and her thick lovely hair was always smooth now and glossy and carefully dressed . It was the one thing she still could do for herself and she did it with a pitiful care . She looked ten years younger , in a way . And her house was spick and span at ten o'clock every morning now . From her chair she directed the children and because in all Green Valley there was no woman who knew better how work ought to be done it was well done . And then came the long empty hours when she sat , as she was sitting now , in her chair on the sunny side of the house where she could look at her little sea of tulips and hyacinths and drink in their perfume . She had been trying to crochet but had dropped her needle .