about three o'clock
By a little reasoning and inquiry she was able to come to a conclusion on his destination , and to divine his errand . Her husband was absent , and her father did not return . He had , in truth , gone on to Sherton after the interview , but this Grace did not know . In an indefinite dread that something serious would arise out of Melbury 's visit by reason of the inequalities of temper and nervous irritation to which he was subject , something possibly that would bring her much more misery than accompanied her present negative state of mind , she left the house about three o'clock , and took a loitering walk in the woodland track by which she imagined he would come home . This track under the bare trees and over the cracking sticks , screened and roofed in from the outer world of wind and cloud by a net-work of boughs , led her slowly on till in time she had left the larger trees behind her and swept round into the coppice where Winterborne and his men were clearing the undergrowth . Had Giles 's attention been concentrated on his hurdles he would not have seen her ; but ever since Melbury 's passage across the opposite glade in the morning he had been as uneasy and unsettled as Grace herself ; and her advent now was the one appearance which , since her father 's avowal , could arrest him more than Melbury 's return with his tidings . Fearing that something might be the matter , he hastened up to her .