seven o'clock
Miss Phoebe looked at him with very kind eyes . `` Doctor Strong , '' she said , `` I think -- it is no light thing for me to say , holding the convictions I do -- but I think you are worthy of single blessedness ! '' Miss Vesta was trimming her lamp . That meant , in this early summer season , that it was after seven o'clock . The little lady stood at the window in the upper hall . It was a broad window , with a low round arch , looking out on the garden and the sea beyond it . A bracket was fastened to the sill , and on this bracket stood the lamp that Miss Vesta was trimming .