nearly one o'clock
He looked and acted like his former self as he went to the table , took the letter , opened it , and read : `` I am willing to marry you , if you really want me . I am so tired of struggling , and I do n't see anything but dark ahead . -- D. H. '' Norman struggled over to the bed , threw himself down , flat upon his back , arms and legs extended wide and whole body relaxed . He felt the blood whirl up into his brain like the great red and black tongues of flame and smoke in a conflagration , and then he slept soundly until nearly one o'clock . To an outsider there would have been a world of homely commonplace pathos in that little letter of the girl 's if read aright , that is to say , if read with what was between the lines supplied . It is impossible to live in cities any length of time and with any sort of eyes without learning the bitter unromantic truths about poverty -- city poverty . In quiet , desolate places one may be poor , very poor , without much conscious suffering .