four o'clock
He ceased to `` Highness '' her , laughed at her jokes and in turn provoked her to merriment . The meal came to an end too soon for him , but not too soon for the nodding dowager nor the silent , contemplating priest , who had worn through his period of saintly abstraction and had grown most humanly impatient . The girl looked at her watch . `` Good gracious , '' she said , `` it is four o'clock and I have promised to go to tennis . '' -LRB- Malcolm loathed tennis from that hour . -RRB- He took his leave of her with a return to something of the old ceremonial . `` Your Grand Ducal Highness has been most gracious , '' he said , but she arrested his eloquence with a little grimace .