nine o'clock
He had cut loose from the familiar shores of habit , and launched himself on uncharted seas of emotion ; all the old tests and measures were left behind , and his course was to be shaped by new stars . That course , for the moment , led merely to Miss Bart 's boarding-house ; but its shabby door-step had suddenly become the threshold of the untried . As he approached he looked up at the triple row of windows , wondering boyishly which one of them was hers . It was nine o'clock , and the house , being tenanted by workers , already showed an awakened front to the street . He remembered afterward having noticed that only one blind was down . He noticed too that there was a pot of pansies on one of the window sills , and at once concluded that the window must be hers : it was inevitable that he should connect her with the one touch of beauty in the dingy scene . Nine o'clock was an early hour for a visit , but Selden had passed beyond all such conventional observances .