nearly five o'clock before
She turned into the fields , walking under trees which she did not see , and up hills and down valleys without noticing the incline of either . At times , through the tatter of her mind there blazed a memory of her mother lying sick at home , waiting for her daughter to return with food , and at such memories she gripped her hands together frightfully and banished the thought . -- A moment 's reflection and she could have hated her mother . It was nearly five o'clock before she left the Park . She walked in a fog of depression . For hours she had gone hither and thither in the well-remembered circle , every step becoming more wayward and aimless . The sun had disappeared , and a gray evening bowed down upon the fields ; the little wind that whispered along the grass or swung the light branches of the trees had a bleak edge to it .