seven o'clock
`` Zenobia is n't in yet , '' says she . `` We will wait dinner awhile for her . '' Then chunks of silence from Martha , which ai n't usual . At seven o'clock we gives it up and sits down alone . We had n't finished our soup when this telegram comes . First off I thought Martha was goin ' to choke or blow a cylinder head , I did n't know which . Then she takes to sobbin ' into the consommé , and fin ` lly she shoves the message over to me .