three o’clock
One of them was to love the other and to die broken-hearted because the loved one would not requite the passion . For Agatha , prompt to ridicule sentimentality in her companions , and gifted with an infectious spirit of farce , secretly turned for imaginative luxury to visions of despair and death ; and often endured the mortification of the successful clown who believes , whilst the public roar with laughter at him , that he was born a tragedian . There was much in her nature , she felt , that did not find expression in her popular representation of the soldier in the chimney . By three o'clock the local visitors had arrived , and tennis was proceeding in four courts , rolled and prepared by Smilash . The two curates were there , with a few lay gentlemen . Mrs. Miller , the vicar , and some mothers and other chaperons looked on and consumed light refreshments , which were brought out upon trays by Smilash , who had borrowed and put on a large white apron , and was making himself officiously busy . At a quarter past the hour a message came from Miss Wilson , requesting Miss Wylie 's attendance .