three
o'clock
She had denied everything and every one , she reflected as she went away -- and that was a relief ; but it also made rather a clean sweep of the future . The prospect put on a bareness that already gave her something in common with the Miss Condrips . Merton Densher , who passed the best hours of each night at the office of his newspaper , had at times , during the day , to make up for it , a sense , or at least an appearance , of leisure , in accordance with which he was not infrequently to be met , in different parts of the town , at moments when men of business are hidden from the public eye . More than once , during the present winter 's end , he had deviated , toward three o'clock , or toward four , into Kensington Gardens , where he might for a while , on each occasion , have been observed to demean himself as a person with nothing to do . He made his way indeed , for the most part , with a certain directness , over to the north side ; but once that ground was reached his behaviour was noticeably wanting in point . He moved seemingly at random from alley to alley ; he stopped for no reason and remained idly agaze ; he sat down in a chair and then changed to a bench ; after which he walked about again , only again to repeat both the vagueness and the vivacity . Distinctly , he was a man either with nothing at all to do or with ever so much to think about ; and it was not to be denied that the impression he might often thus easily make had the effect of causing the burden of proof , in certain directions , to rest on him .