about eight o'clock
And it was already late enough to go and dress for dinner , for his grandfather 's dinner-hour was six . Evening in the Wood IT happened that Mrs. Pomfret had had a slight quarrel with Mrs. Best , the housekeeper , on this Thursday morning -- a fact which had two consequences highly convenient to Hetty . It caused Mrs. Pomfret to have tea sent up to her own room , and it inspired that exemplary lady 's maid with so lively a recollection of former passages in Mrs. Best 's conduct , and of dialogues in which Mrs. Best had decidedly the inferiority as an interlocutor with Mrs. Pomfret , that Hetty required no more presence of mind than was demanded for using her needle , and throwing in an occasional `` yes '' or `` no . '' She would have wanted to put on her hat earlier than usual ; only she had told Captain Donnithorne that she usually set out about eight o'clock , and if he SHOULD go to the Grove again expecting to see her , and she should be gone ! Would he come ? Her little butterfly soul fluttered incessantly between memory and dubious expectation . At last the minute-hand of the old-fashioned brazen-faced timepiece was on the last quarter to eight , and there was every reason for its being time to get ready for departure .