ten o'clock
When my stepmother returned she seemed to have suddenly grown older , and she looked at us through haggard and sunken eyes . Surely this was a terrible punishment she was undergoing , and I pitied her . Mr. Cobb had an important engagement to keep , she said , and hoped we would excuse him . Slowly the evening wore away and at ten o'clock we were shown to our room , greatly fatigued by this trying experience . It was a room fronting the street on the third floor , which I had occupied before I left home . The walls had been painted white since then , with a frieze of gold along the ceiling . My father used to sleep in the room directly under it .