seven o'clock
Her own life was a failure . Why go on fighting ? If she could make her family happy , if she could give Vesta a good education , if she could conceal the true nature of this older story and keep Vesta in the background perhaps , perhaps -- well , rich men had married poor girls before this , and Lester was very kind , he certainly liked her . At seven o'clock she went to Mrs. Bracebridge 's ; at noon she excused herself on the pretext of some work for her mother and left the house for the hotel . Lester , leaving Cincinnati a few days earlier than he expected , had failed to receive her reply ; he arrived at Cleveland feeling sadly out of tune with the world . He had a lingering hope that a letter from Jennie might be awaiting him at the hotel , but there was no word from her . He was a man not easily wrought up , but to-night he felt depressed , and so went gloomily up to his room and changed his linen .