five o'clock
It was dry and dusty and covered with a short , cutting stubble beneath the upper surface of waving grass and weeds . It no longer held any allurement for him and yet he did not want to go back to the house . He looked at his watch . It was five o'clock . Some of the old ladies would still be there . They would be sitting about on the horsehair chairs making lugubrious conversation . Back toward the left stretched the pike , white and dusty enough .