Four o'clock
The sky was lightly overcast , and a rather chill , draughty , rustling wind had risen . Resolved to handle the men with the personal touch , he had discouraged his agent and the farmers from coming to the conference , and passed the gate with the braced-up feeling of one who goes to an encounter . In that very spick-and-span farmyard ducks were swimming leisurely on the greenish pond , white pigeons strutting and preening on the eaves of the barn , and his keen eye noted that some tiles were out of order up there . Four o'clock ! Ah , here was a fellow coming ! And instinctively he crisped his hands that were buried in his pockets , and ran over to himself his opening words . Then , with a sensation of disgust , he saw that the advancing laborer was that incorrigible ` land lawyer ' Gaunt .