seven o'clock
At length the parcel he had sent for from Lossie House arrived . He had explained to Mrs Courthope what he wanted the things for , and she had made no difficulty of sending them to the address he gave her . Lenorme had already begun the portrait , had indeed been working at it very busily , and was now quite ready for him to sit . The early morning being the only time a groom could contrive to spare -- and that involved yet earlier attention to his horses , they arranged that Malcolm should be at the study every day by seven o'clock , until the painter 's object was gained . So he mounted Kelpie at half past six of a fine breezy spring morning , rode across Hyde Park and down Grosvenor Place , and so reached Chelsea , where he put up his mare in Lenorme 's stable -- fortunately large enough to admit of an empty stall between her and the painter 's grand screw , else a battle frightful to relate might have fallen to my lot . Nothing could have been more to Malcolm 's mind than such a surpassing opportunity of learning with assurance what sort of man Lenorme was ; and the relation that arose between them extended the sittings far beyond the number necessary for the object proposed . How the first of them passed I must recount with some detail .