noon
But her confession would have to be postponed ; and the chill of the delay settled heavily on her fagged spirit . It lay heavier when the postman 's last ring brought no note for her , and she had to go upstairs to a lonely night -- a night as grim and sleepless as her tortured fancy had pictured it to Gerty . She had never learned to live with her own thoughts , and to be confronted with them through such hours of lucid misery made the confused wretchedness of her previous vigil seem easily bearable . Daylight disbanded the phantom crew , and made it clear to her that she would hear from Selden before noon ; but the day passed without his writing or coming . Lily remained at home , lunching and dining alone with her aunt , who complained of flutterings of the heart , and talked icily on general topics . Mrs. Peniston went to bed early , and when she had gone Lily sat down and wrote a note to Selden . She was about to ring for a messenger to despatch it when her eye fell on a paragraph in the evening paper which lay at her elbow : `` Mr. Lawrence Selden was among the passengers sailing this afternoon for Havana and the West Indies on the Windward Liner Antilles . ''