nearly four o'clock in the
afternoon
The street was a dingy little street , a _ cul-de-sac _ of very small houses in a row , each with an almost flattened bow window and a blistered brown door with a black knocker . He poised his bright new bicycle against the window , and knocked and stood waiting , and felt himself in his straw hat and black serge suit a very pleasant and prosperous-looking figure . The door was opened by cousin Miriam . She was wearing a bluish print dress that brought out a kind of sallow warmth in her skin , and although it was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon , her sleeves were tucked up , as if for some domestic work , above the elbows , showing her rather slender but very shapely yellowish arms . The loosely pinned bodice confessed a delicately rounded neck . For a moment she regarded him with suspicion and a faint hostility , and then recognition dawned in her eyes . `` Why ! ''