about four
o'clock
Nobody had called ; nobody , so far as she knew , had passed by , except the ordinary neighbours . Once in the afternoon , indeed , she had thought she heard a carriage pass the bottom of the lane , but on looking out from the kitchen she had seen nothing of it . Out of this slender fact , the only further information that could be extracted was a note of time . It was , the girl thought , about four o'clock when she heard the carriage pass . `` But it could n't have passed , '' Catharine objected , `` or you would have seen it go up the valley . '' The girl assented , for the kitchen window commanded the road up to the bridge . Then the carriage , if she had really heard it , must have come to the foot of the lane , turned and gone back toward Whinborough again .