about six o’clock
He prayed earnestly , in relation to such a triumph , for a providential re-enforcement of Waterlow 's sense of that source of charm . If Waterlow had a fault it was that his freshnesses were sometimes too crude . He avenged himself for the artist 's profanation of his first attempt to approach Miss Francie by indulging at the end of another week in a second . He went about six o'clock , when he supposed she would have returned from her day 's wanderings , and his prudence was rewarded by the sight of the young lady sitting in the court of the hotel with her father and sister . Mr. Dosson was new to Gaston Probert , but the young man might have been a naturalist visiting a rank country with a net of such narrow meshes as to let no creature of the air escape . The little party was as usual expecting Mr. Flack at any moment , and they had collected downstairs , so that he might pick them up easily . They had , on the first floor , an expensive parlour , decorated in white and gold , with sofas of crimson damask ; but there was something lonely in that grandeur and the place had become mainly a receptacle for their tall trunks , with a half-emptied paper of chocolates or marrons glaces on every table .