the hour of six
He had grown thin and pale ; his appetite failed , until he seemed not to eat sufficient to keep life in him . He was depressed , and absent-minded , and so nervous and restless that his mother suffered the keenest anxiety lest all this strain upon his mind and body should end in insanity ! `` Oh , what an interminable day this has seemed ! '' sighed Lady Cameron to her companion , as , soft on the saltry stillness of the air , there came to them the sound of a distant church clock striking the hour of six . `` I hope I may never pass another like it -- I could neither read nor work , while my thoughts and the dread of something -- I know not what -- have nearly driven me wild . '' Mrs. Mencke shivered , in spite of the heat , at these words . She also had felt as if she could never live through another twelve hours like the past , and she believed if she could but once get away from the place where she had suffered so much of disappointment and wretchedness , this terrible oppression and weight would in a measure disappear .