five o'clock
Journeys ' end ! She flew into the other room and with unsteady fingers divested herself of her severely smart business dress and flung a creamy cloud over her head . She justified this costume vigorously to herself . It was five o'clock -- almost evening -- and she wanted him to see her thus , he who had hardly ever seen her in other than the bread-and-butter garb of every day , but when she looked in the glass she shook her head . If he had at last dared to ask her to leave her sunny fields for his shadowed paths , was this the vision to reassure him ? She put on a mellow velvet of deepest brown , cunningly cut , and she had the satisfaction of knowing that it made her look like a young queen in an old frieze , but not , it was to be admitted , like a durable help-meet for a Settlement worker . Her windows were wide to the tentative advances of spring and now she heard a ringing tread upon the pavement below , and with breathless haste she pulled off her regal raiment and flung herself into the primmest and plainest of her work frocks -- a stern little brown serge with Puritan collar and cuffs , and this time she nodded approval at her reflection .