a quarter to nine
Tante is always late ; but always , always , '' she added , without condemnation if with anxiety . `` And there is the bell now . Yes , I heard it . '' It was a quarter to nine when Madame von Marwitz , with Karen , who had hastened out to meet her , following behind , appeared at last , benign and unperturbed as a moon sliding from clouds . In the doorway she made her accustomed pause , the pause of one not surveying her audience but indulgently allowing her audience to survey her . It was the attitude in which Belot was painting his great portrait of her . But it was not met to-night by the eyes to which she was accustomed .