eight o'clock
Barnet turned in his chair , and looked with unfocused eyes in a direction southward from where he sat , as if he saw not the room but a long way beyond . ` I wonder if she lives there still ! ' he said . He rose with a sudden rebelliousness , put on his hat and coat , and went out of the house , pursuing his way along the glistening pavement while eight o'clock was striking from St. Mary 's tower , and the apprentices and shopmen were slamming up the shutters from end to end of the town . In two minutes only those shops which could boast of no attendant save the master or the mistress remained with open eyes . These were ever somewhat less prompt to exclude customers than the others : for their owners ' ears the closing hour had scarcely the cheerfulness that it possessed for the hired servants of the rest . Yet the night being dreary the delay was not for long , and their windows , too , blinked together one by one .