three o'clock
said the twenty-year-old Freda hardily . Ma herself thought this disgustingly cold-blooded ; she said it did not seem refined for a woman to admit that her husband had his failings , and Mary Lou said frankly that it was easy enough to see where THAT marriage would end , but Susan read more truly the little bride 's flashing blue eyes and the sudden scarlet in her cheeks , and she won Freda 's undying loyalty by a surreptitious pressure of her fingers . One afternoon in mid-November Susan and Mary Lou chanced to be in the dining-room , working over a puzzle-card that had been delivered as an advertisement of some new breakfast food . They had intended to go to market immediately after lunch , but it was now three o'clock , and still they hung over the fascinating little combination of paper angles and triangles , feeling that any instant might see the problem solved . Suddenly the telephone rang , and Susan went to answer it , while Mary Lou , who had for some minutes been loosening her collar and belt preparatory to changing for the street , trailed slowly upstairs , holding her garments together . Outside was a bright , warm winter day , babies were being wheeled about in the sunshine , and children , just out of school , were shouting and running in the street . From where Susan sat at the telephone she could see a bright angle of sunshine falling through the hall window upon the faded carpet of the rear entry , and could hear Mrs. Cortelyou 's cherished canary , Bobby , bursting his throat in a cascade of song upstairs .