EIGHT!
[Perhaps something is the matter with her bridal array. The dress might not have arrived in time. She may be waiting for her feathers.]
NINE!
[Not yet! Perhaps she is expecting Jack to go to her house and accompany her here. It is very natural Jack may have agreed to do so, and then forgotten all about it]
TEN!
[Perhaps there has been some misunderstanding about the hour, and the widow is not expecting to come till two.]
ELEVEN!
[Perhaps she is ill. Sudden attack of vertigo, acute rheumatism, and brain-fever, consequent upon the excitement of the occasion. The widow prostrated! Jack saved!]
TWELVE!!!
The last toll of the bell rolled out slowly and solemnly, and its deep tones came along the lofty church, and died away in long reverberations down the aisles and along the galleries. Twelve! The hour had come, and with the hour the man; but where was the woman?