five o'clock in the afternoon
To-morrow came , but Vernon was not in a condition to ride his pony . The fever and prostration were worse than they had been over night , and while Brian seemed to have taken no harm from his exposure to the storm , the boy had evidently suffered a shock to the system , from which he would be slow to recover . Tortured with anxiety about this idolised brother , Ida did not forget her duty to her husband . She did what she had resolved to do during the long watches of that agonising night , in which she had seen Brian the victim of his own weak self-indulgence , to all intents and purposes a madman , yet unworthy of the compassion which lunacy inspires , since this madness was self-induced , -- she telegraphed to the London physician whose advice her husband affected to value ; and at five o'clock in the afternoon she had the satisfaction of seeing a soberly-clad gray-haired gentleman alight from a Petersfield fly in front of the portico . This was Dr. Mallison , of Harley Street , a great authority in all nervous disorders -- as thorough and as real a man as Dr. Rylance was artificial and shallow , yet a man whom some of Dr. Rylance 's most profitable patients denounced as a brute . Dr. Mallison 's plain and straightforward manner invited confidence , and Ida confided her fears and anxieties to him without scruple , telling him faithfully all that she had observed in her husband 's conduct before and after that one dreadful night , which she described shudderingly . ` Yes , I remember his case .