ten o'clock
So , without a moment 's hesitation , she sat down and wrote only a line , knowing that it would be all-sufficient . It was her first love-tryst . Yet if it had been her twentieth she could not have been readier . `` I shall be at the gate of the hill pasture , '' so she wrote , `` at ten o'clock to-night . '' It was with a very tumultuous heart that she closed this missive , and went out quickly to give it to Jess lest she should repent . A day before , even , it had never entered her mind that by any possibility she could write such a note to a young man whom she had only known so short a time . But then she reflected that certainly Ralph Peden was not like any other young man ; so that in this case it was not only right but also commendable .