Nine o'clock
It was nine o'clock , and the house , being tenanted by workers , already showed an awakened front to the street . He remembered afterward having noticed that only one blind was down . He noticed too that there was a pot of pansies on one of the window sills , and at once concluded that the window must be hers : it was inevitable that he should connect her with the one touch of beauty in the dingy scene . Nine o'clock was an early hour for a visit , but Selden had passed beyond all such conventional observances . He only knew that he must see Lily Bart at once -- he had found the word he meant to say to her , and it could not wait another moment to be said . It was strange that it had not come to his lips sooner -- that he had let her pass from him the evening before without being able to speak it . But what did that matter , now that a new day had come ?