ten o'clock
If any one had told me two years ago that I should ever come to praying for a stepmother I should have thought them crazy ; and yet I have come to it , just because it 's you . '' After that it was not unnatural that Diane should go and sit on the divan beside Dorothea for any exchange of such confidences as could not be conveniently made from a distance . If she admitted anything on her own part , it was by implication rather than by direct assertion , and though she did not promise in words to come to the aid of the youthful lovers , she allowed the possibility that she would do so to be assumed . So , in soft , whispered , broken confessions the evening slipped away more rapidly than the day had done , and by ten o'clock they knew he must be near . The last touch of welcome came when they passed from room to room , lighting up the big house in cheerful readiness for its lord 's inspection . When all was done Dorothea stationed herself at a window near the street ; while Diane , with a curious shrinking from what she had to face , took her seat in the remotest and obscurest corner in the more distant of the two drawingrooms . When the sound of wheels , followed by a loud ring at the bell , told her that he was actually at the door , she felt faint from the violence of her heart 's beating .