four o'clock in the afternoon
Please write , dear Martin , or I 'll find it very difficult to stay quiet here , and I know I ought to stay quiet for your sake . Your loving , MAGGIE . She put it in an envelope , wrote the address as he had told her , and then set out to find Jane . It was four o'clock in the afternoon now and the house , on this winter 's day , was dark and dim . The gas was always badly lit in the passages , spitting and muttering like an imprisoned animal . The house was so quiet when Maggie came out on to the stairs that there seemed to be no one in it . She found her way down into the hall and saw Thomas the cat there , moving like a black ghost along the floor .