a quarter before
nine o'clock
she asked . Feeling that the force of her narrative might suffer from the admission that she had only entered the house by a side door after she had met Him walking rapidly away from the front , the housemaid answered merely by moving sighs . The laundress reasoned from past experience that the font had gone dry , and suddenly remembered that she was promised to help with the Bowers 's heavy ironing . This was at a quarter before nine o'clock . At ten minutes past nine o'clock the laundress remarked across the ironing-board to Mrs. Bowers that if she were one of those odious persons who carried tales , which of course she was not , she could expose the carryings-on of somebody living not a hundred miles away to a tune which would bring the blush to New Babylon 's outraged cheek . Mrs. Bowers made haste to answer that she was of principle firmly opposed to gossip ; but as an intelligent woman , she recognized that certain things require ventilation for the good of the community , and was accustomed in such emergencies to send personal reluctance to the rear . The tale of how He coming unexpectedly home found Him with Her was then put through its paces with such skilful jockeying that not one in ten would know it for the same dobbin so lately brought limping to the light .