Eight o'clock
That evening Tell Mapleson dropped into Judson 's store and O'mie was let off early . The little Irishman ran up the street at once to the Whately home . Mrs. Whately had retired . Eight o'clock was bed time for middle-aged people in our town . Marjie sat alone by the fire . How many times that summer we had talked of the long winter evenings we should spend together by that fireplace in Marjie 's cosy sitting-room . And now she was beside the hearth , and I was far away .