four o'clock
But while she was sitting there in their cheerless room , planning and planning ! -- Maurice was out , wandering about in the gray afternoon . It had begun to snow , in a fitful , irritating way -- little gritty pellets that blew into his face . He had nowhere to go -- four o'clock is a dead time to drop in on people ! He had nothing to do , and nothing to think of -- except the foolish , middle-aged woman , stating , in their dreary third-floor front , an undeniable fact -- he was tired of her ! Walking aimlessly about in the cold , he said to himself , dully , `` Why _ was _ I such an idiot as to marry her ? '' He was old enough to curse himself for his folly , but he was young enough to suffer , agonies of mortification , and to pity himself , too ; pity himself for the mere physical discomfort of his life : the boarding-house table , with its uninteresting food ; the worn shirt cuff which was scratching his wrist ; and he pitied himself for his spiritual discomfort -- when Eleanor called him `` darling '' at the dinner table , or exhibited her jealousy before people !