twelve o'clock
By the time the messenger had returned she had readdressed the envelope , unopened , to Mr. Goward . Billy took it back down-stairs again ; and every one trooped off to bed , Alice and mother with positive snorts and flounces of impatience . Needless to say , Tom and Maria returned in perfect safety on Saturday . Before then , at twelve o'clock on the same morning , when Cyrus and Peggy had gone , I was sitting on the piazza making a little money-bag for her , with mother sitting rocking beside me , and complaining of every one in peace , when Dr. Denbigh drove up to the horse-block , flung his weight out of the buggy , and hurried up the steps . He shook hands with us hastily and abstractedly , and asked if he might speak to me inside the house . `` Mrs. Talbert , '' he said , closing the door of the library as soon as we were inside it , `` I am sure you will try not to feel alarmed at something I must tell you of at once . The early morning train I came on from New York , the one that ought to get in at Eastridge at eleven , was derailed two hours ago on a misplaced switch between here and Whitman .