ten o'clock
The Doctor suspected him of being brutal to his wife , and would not have been surprised any morning upon receiving the news of the man 's arrest as one of a gang of forgers , or coiners , or burglars . But he lived and let live , and whatever else the big Afrikander may have been , he was an excellent workman at his trade . One evening Bough rode round on the motor-tricycle himself , and mentioned casually that his wife was ailing . The Doctor , in the act of mounting the machine , put a brief question or two , registered the replies in the automatic sub-memory he kept for business , and told the man to send her round at ten o'clock upon the following morning . She came , punctual to the hour , and was shown into Owen 's consulting-room -- a little woman with beautiful , melancholy eyes and a pretty figure . Illiterate , common , affected , and vain to a degree , hideously misusing the English language in that low , dulcet voice of hers , ludicrous in her application of the debatable aspirate to words in the spelling of which it has no part . Rather an absurd little person , Mrs. Bough .