She took a jewelled ring, his gift, from her purse, and kissed it, and drew it on and off her finger, leaving it on.

Now she might wear it without fear of inquiries and virtuous eyebrows.

O heavenly now--if only it were an hour hence; and going behind galloping horses! The clock was at the terrible moment.

She hesitated internally and hastened; once her feet stuck fast, and firmly she said, 'No'; but the clock was her lord.

The clock was her lover and her lord; and obeying it, she managed to get into the sitting-room, on the pretext that she merely wished to see through the front window whether daylight was coming.
How well she knew that half-light of the ebb of the wave of darkness.
Strange enough it was to see it showing houses regaining their solidity of the foregone day, instead of still fields, black hedges, familiar shapes of trees.