four o'clock
They were just passing Tod 's . The cottage wore its usual air of embowered peace . And for the life of him Malloring could not restrain a gesture of annoyance . On reaching home he sent gardeners and grooms in all directions with word that he would be glad to meet the men at four o'clock at the home farm . Much thought , and interviews with several of the farmers , who all but one -- a shaky fellow at best -- were for giving the laborers a sharp lesson , occupied the interval . Though he had refused to admit the notion that the men could be chicaned , as his agent had implied , he certainly did wonder a little whether a certain measure of security might not in some way be guaranteed , which would still leave him and the farmers a free hand . But the more he meditated on the whole episode , the more he perceived how intimately it interfered with the fundamental policy of all good landowners -- of knowing what was good for their people better than those people knew themselves .