nine
o'clock
Jumping down from his box the man tried the gates , expecting to find them locked , but they yielded to a stout push , and a moment later he drove in . The horses , tired from breasting the wind on many hills , went up the incline slowly , the wheels grating over small stones on the ill-kept drive . Mary thought the noise of hoofs and wheels so sharp and unmistakable that she looked to see some eye of light suddenly open in the black face of the house . It was not yet nine o'clock , and the caretaker could hardly have gone to bed . But there was no sign of life ; and the dark château among crowding trees might have stood in silence and desolation for a century of sleep , like the lost palace of the enchanted beauty . A flight of marble steps went up to a colonnaded terrace , and Lord Dauntrey mounted first to ring the bell . `` Perhaps the caretaker has given herself a holiday , and we ca n't get in after all , '' he gloomily suggested .