eight o'clock
`` I have been sitting in the summer-house for an hour -- reading ! '' protested Mabel , wondrously resigned to the detention , after a single , and not violent attempt at release . `` If you had opened your shutters you must have seen me . But I knew I was secure from observation on that side of the house , at least until eight o'clock , about which time the glories of the new day usually penetrate very tightly-closed lids . As to dew -- there is n't a drop upon grass or blossom . And , by the same token , we shall have a storm within twenty-four hours . '' `` Is that true ?