four o'clock
`` Such things have happened , '' said the Duke good-humouredly , and went away . Not being in the least a ladies ' man , he was very apt to make such speeches occasionally . He had a habit of taking it for granted that no one refused his invitations . At four o'clock that afternoon Silas B. Barker junior drew up to the steps of the hotel in a very gorgeous conveyance , called in America a T-cart , and resembling a mail phaeton in build . From the high double box Mr. Barker commanded and guided a pair of showy brown horses , harnessed in the most approved philanthropic , or rather philozooic style ; no check-rein , no breeching , no nothing apparently , except a pole and Mr. Barker 's crest . For Mr. Barker had a crest , since he came from Salem , Massachusetts , and the bearings were a witch pendant , gules , on a gallows sinister , sable . Behind him sat the regulation clock-work groom , brought over at considerable expense from the establishment of Viscount Plungham , and who sprang to the ground and took his place at the horses ' heads as soon as Barker had brought them to a stand .