about two o'clock
Singular , indeed , that while I was drifting over England with the shyster , the man we were in quest of awaited me at my own ultimate destination . Whether Mr. Denman had shown his album to Bellairs , whether , indeed , Bellairs could have caught -LRB- as I did -RRB- this hint from an obliterated postmark , I shall never know , and it mattered not . We were equal now ; my task at Stallbridge-le-Carthew was accomplished ; my interest in postage-stamps died shamelessly away ; the astonished Denman was bowed out ; and , ordering the horse to be put in , I plunged into the study of the time-table . I fell from the skies on Barbizon about two o'clock of a September afternoon . It is the dead hour of the day ; all the workers have gone painting , all the idlers strolling , in the forest or the plain ; the winding causewayed street is solitary , and the inn deserted . I was the more pleased to find one of my old companions in the dining-room ; his town clothes marked him for a man in the act of departure ; and indeed his portmanteau lay beside him on the floor . `` Why , Stennis , '' I cried , `` you 're the last man I expected to find here . ''