six o'clock
It is something of a road compared to what comes after ; but Natalie , hitherto accustomed to cushions and springs in her drives , could not conceive of anything worse . As the afternoon waned , what with the heat , the hard , narrow seat , and the incessant lurching and bumping of the crazy stage , which threw her now backward till her head threatened to snap off , and now forward on Nell 's knees , the blooming roses in Natalie 's cheeks faded , and her smile grew wan . Poor Garth , anxiously watching her , almost burst with suppressed solicitousness . But at last the journey came to its end ; and at six o'clock the Royal Mail with its bruised and famished passengers swung into the yard at Forbie 's , the halfway house , fifty miles from Prince George . Garth had learned that the men slept in an outside bunkhouse , while the women were received into the farmhouse itself . He hastened to interview Mrs. Forbie in private , that the dreadful possibility of Natalie 's being asked to share a room with the other woman passenger might be avoided . It is doubtful if Natalie would have taken any harm from poor old Nell ; but Garth was a young man falling in love ; and so , ferociously virtuous in judging Nell 's kind .