four o'clock in the
afternoon
Bert wanted nothing else -- just Nancy . He had been spending the summer with a friend , at the friend 's uptown house , but now he thought he would go out to the Venables , and show some interest in his newly-papered room and hear them speak of her . He rang their bell with a thumping heart . It was four o'clock in the afternoon . She might even be here ! Or they might tell him she was engaged to Clark Belknap of Maryland . ... Bert felt so sick at the thought that it seemed a fact .