half past six
It required , however , only a moment 's sober thought , once satisfied she was alone , to suggest as one reasonable solution to the puzzle that the owners had fled town for the week-end , leaving the establishment in care of untrustworthy servants , who had promptly elected to seek their own pleasure elsewhere . Content with this theory , Sally chose one of the windows of the servants ' dining-room from which to spy out stealthily , between the shade and the sill , over a flooded area and street ; first remarking a sensible modification of the gloom in spite of an unabated downpour , then that the house was near the Park Avenue corner , finally a policeman sheltered in the tradesman 's entrance of the dwelling across the way . At this last disquieting discovery Sally retreated expeditiously from the window , for the first time realising that her presence in that house , however adventitious and innocent , would n't be easy to explain to one of a policeman 's incredulous idiosyncrasy ; the legal definition of burglar , strictly applied , fitted Sarah Manvers with disconcerting neatness . But nobody knew ; it was only half past six by the clock in the kitchen ; it was reasonably improbable that the faithless servants would come back much before midnight ; and she need only wait for the storm to pass to return across the roofs , or , for that matter , to leave circumspectly by the front door . For it would certainly be dark by the time the storm uttered its last surly growl and trailed its bedraggled skirts off across Long Island . For an instant finely thrilled with a delicious sense of the wild adventure of being alone in a strange house , free to range and pry at will , she found the full piquancy a bit difficult to relish with sodden clothing clinging clammily to her body and limbs . None the less it was quite without definite design that Sally retraced her way to that suite of rooms in the second story which seemed to be the quarters of the mistress of the establishment ; and it was no more than common-sense precaution -LRB- prompted , it 's true , by sheer , idle curiosity -RRB- which moved her to darken windows already shuttered by drawing their draperies of heavy , rose-coloured silk before switching on the lights .