Eight o'clock
A morning in October , and she had waked to fare forth and capture , by hook or by crook , the most eligible parti who was ever likely to swim into her ken . Another morning in October , and all her waking horizon seemed filled by the knowledge that , at half-past four in the afternoon , she would meet and talk of cheroot factories with a man so little eligible that he trusted the crows to bring his raiment . In the wide world was there another person whose life 's pendulum , in a twelvemonth , had swung so wildly far ? Eight o'clock now , by the little clock on the mantel : eight hours and a half to Mr. Pond 's meeting for workers at the old Dabney House . One need n't be an astronomer to calculate that . And Cally Heth lay wide-eyed in her great bed , and thought how strange , how wonderful is life ... . In the watches her mind had gone back and back over the long year ; and she had marvelled at the tininess of turnings upon which , it was all clear now , great issues had hung .