nearly nine o'clock
They had travelled through the night , and in the early morning left the express at a junction . Honora sat in the straight-backed seat of the smaller train with parted lips and beating heart , gazing now and again at the pearly mists rising from the little river valley they were climbing . Chiltern was like a schoolboy . `` We 'll soon be there , '' he cried , but it was nearly nine o'clock when they reached the Gothic station that marked the end of the line . It was a Chiltern line , he told her , and she was already within the feudal domain . Time indeed that she awoke ! She reached the platform to confront a group of upturned , staring faces , and for the moment her courage failed her .