ten o'clock in the morning
That revived her consciousness of the possible dangers still between her and the end she held in view . She had heard of people being arrested for suspicious conduct . She did n't feel sure in what this might consist , but surely such an appearance could be avoided by walking fast and seeming to know exactly where one was going . It was ten o'clock in the morning , three hours since she had left her house and a most reasonable time of daylight , when Flora turned out of the flatness of `` south of Market Street '' and began to mount a slow-rising hill . It was a wooden sidewalk she followed flanking a wood-paved street , and these , with the wooden fences and dusty cypress hedges and the houses peering over them upon her looked worn , battered and belonging all to the past . None the less it bore traces of having been a dignified past , and farther up on the crown of the hill among deep-bosomed trees , two or three large mansions wore the gravely triumphant aspect of having been brought successfully from a past empire into a present with all their traditions and mahogany complete . Upward toward these Flora was looking .