nine o’clock
Philip had already left , -- at the autumn quarter , -- that he might go to the south for the winter , for the sake of his health ; and this change helped to give Tom the unsettled , exultant feeling that usually belongs to the last months before leaving school . This quarter , too , there was some hope of his father 's lawsuit being decided ; _ that _ made the prospect of home more entirely pleasurable . For Tom , who had gathered his view of the case from his father 's conversation , had no doubt that Pivart would be beaten . Tom had not heard anything from home for some weeks , -- a fact which did not surprise him , for his father and mother were not apt to manifest their affection in unnecessary letters , -- when , to his great surprise , on the morning of a dark , cold day near the end of November , he was told , soon after entering the study at nine o'clock , that his sister was in the drawing-room . It was Mrs Stelling who had come into the study to tell him , and she left him to enter the drawing-room alone . Maggie , too , was tall now , with braided and coiled hair ; she was almost as tall as Tom , though she was only thirteen ; and she really looked older than he did at that moment . She had thrown off her bonnet , her heavy braids were pushed back from her forehead , as if it would not bear that extra load , and her young face had a strangely worn look , as her eyes turned anxiously toward the door .