seven o'clock
`` If Jim does n't kill me , '' she said to herself , `` before he takes a second look at me , he 'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl . But what could I do -- oh ! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents ? '' At seven o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops . Jim was never late . Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered . Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight and she turned white for just a moment .