seven o'clock
At the very moment when he turned his back on the cottage Silas Marner was not more than a hundred yards away . _ III . -- Silas Marner 's Visitor _ It was New Year 's Eve , and Squire Cass was giving a dance to the neighbouring gentry of Raveloe . There had been snow in the afternoon , but at seven o'clock it had ceased , and a freezing wind had sprung up . A woman , shabbily dressed , with a child in her arms , was making her way towards Raveloe , seeking the Red House , where Squire Cass lived . It was not the squire she wanted , but his eldest son , Godfrey , to whom she was secretly married . The marriage -- the result of rash impulse -- had been an unhappy one from the first , for Godfrey 's wife was the slave of opium .