ten o'clock
All he had ever dreamed of the sensation his bride would create was more than verified . Katy had fulfilled his highest expectations , reaching a point from which , as she had said to Mark , she could even dictate to his mother , if she chose , and he did not care to see her relinquish it . But Katy remained true to herself . Dropping her girlish playfulness she assumed a quiet , gentle dignity , which became her even better than her gayer mood had done , making her ten times more popular and more sought after , until she begged to go away , persuading Wilford at last to name the day for their departure , and then , never doubting for a moment that her destination was Silverton , she wrote to Helen that she was coming on such a day , and as they would come by way of Providence and Worcester , they would probably reach West Silverton at ten o'clock , A.M. `` Wilford , '' she added , in a postscript , `` has gone down to bathe , and as the mail is just closing , I shall send this letter without his seeing it . Of course it can make no difference , for I have talked all summer of coming , and he understands it . '' The last day of summer was dying out in a fierce storm of rain which swept in sheets across the Silverton hills , hiding the pond from view , and beating the windows of the farmhouse , whose inmates were nevertheless unmindful of the storm save as they hoped the morrow would prove bright and fair , such as the day should be which brought them back their Katy . Nearly worn out with constant reference was her letter , the mother catching it up from time to time to read the part referring to herself , the place where Katy had told how blessed it would be `` to rest again on mother 's bed , '' just as she had often wished to do , `` and hear mother 's voice ; '' the deacon spelling out by his spluttering tallow candle , with its long , smoky wick , what she had said of `` darling old Uncle Eph , '' and the rides into the fields which she should have with him ; Aunt Betsy , too , reading mostly from memory the words : `` Good old Aunt Betsy , with her skirts so limp and short , tell her she will look handsomer to me than the fairest belle at Newport ; '' and as often as Aunt Betsy read it she would ejaculate : `` The land !