six o'clock in the afternoon
Can she give any satisfactory explanation of her absence ? '' were the next anxious , soul-racking questions that chased each other through his mind . `` Oh , for the strong pinions of the eagle , that I might fly to her at once and satisfy all these anxious doubts , '' he breathed . It was now but six o'clock in the afternoon . The first train for London would not stop at Lone until midnight , and would not reach London until eight o'clock the next morning -- fourteen hours of suspense ! He could not bear that . The telegraph operator was about to close the office .