nine o'clock
`` I do not understand altogether , '' murmured the Indian woman , gently . `` I am not white , and there is a different way of thinking ; but I will hold your hand , and we will live the white life together . '' Cheek to cheek they saw the darkness come , and afterwards the silver moon steal up over a frozen world , in which the air bit like steel and braced the heart like wine . Then , at last , before it was nine o'clock , after her custom , the Indian woman went to bed , leaving her daughter brooding peacefully by the fire . For a long time Pauline sat with hands clasped in her lap , her gaze on the tossing flames , in her heart and mind a new feeling of strength and purpose . The way before her was not clear , she saw no further than this day , and all that it had brought ; yet she was as one that has crossed a direful flood and finds herself on a strange shore in an unknown country , with the twilight about her , yet with so much of danger passed that there was only the thought of the moment 's safety round her , the camp-fire to be lit , and the bed to be made under the friendly trees and stars . For a half-hour she sat so , and then , suddenly , she raised her head listening , leaning toward the window , through which the moonlight streamed .