nine o'clock
For some moments her arms hung there outside the shattered window-glass , and a shower of crimson drops from her fingers splashed on the paving-stones below . She kept on waving her lacerated hands more and more feebly , slowly ; and then they were drawn inward after her body which dropped unconscious to the garret floor . It was a gay scene over at the art school next morning . Even before the accustomed hour the big barnlike room , with a few prize pictures of former classes scattered about the walls , and with the old academy easels standing about like a caravan of patient camels ever loaded with new burdens but ever traveling the same ancient sands of art -- even before nine o'clock the barnlike room presented a scene of eager healthy animal spirits . On the easel of every youthful worker , nearly finished , lay the portrait of the mother . In every case it had been differently done , inadequately done ; but in all cases it had been done . Hardly could any observer have failed to recognize what was there depicted .