three o'clock
It would not have surprised her to discover that this officious friend knew of all her recent meetings with Redgrave -- at the Crystal Palace and elsewhere ; and , but for her innocence , she would have felt herself at the woman 's mercy . That she had not transgressed , and was in no danger of transgressing , enabled her to move with head erect among the things unspeakable which always seemed to her to be lurking in the shadowed corners of Mrs. Strangeways ' house . The day was coming when she might hope to terminate so undesirable an acquaintance , but for the present she must show a friendly face . She made this call at three o'clock , and was received in that over-scented , over-heated boudoir , which by its atmosphere invariably turned her thoughts to evil . The hostess rose languidly , with a pallid , hollow-eyed look of illness . ` Only my neuralgic something or other , ' she said , in reply to a sympathetic inquiry . ` It 's the price one pays for civilisation .