twelve o'clock
`` You are quite a grown woman now . '' Nothing , however , was said about the flowers , though the beautiful basket stood on a side-table , filling the room with its perfume . After breakfast , Mr. Lind left for his office , his daughter setting about her domestic duties . At twelve o'clock she was ready to go out for her accustomed morning walk . The pretty little Anneli , her companion on these excursions , was also ready ; and together they set forth . They chatted frankly together in German -- the ordinary relations between mistress and servant never having been properly established in this case . For one thing , they had been left to depend on each other 's society during many a long evening in foreign towns , when Mr. Lind was away on his own business .