three o'clock
Upon this treaty they parted ; and Mr. Cargill , after musing for a short while upon the singular chance which had sent a living man to answer those doubts for which he was in vain consulting ancient authorities , at length resumed , by degrees , the train of reflection and investigation which Mr. Touchwood 's visit had interrupted , and in a short time lost all recollection of his episodical visitor , and of the engagement which he had formed . Not so Mr. Touchwood , who , when not occupied with business of real importance , had the art , as the reader may have observed , to make a prodigious fuss about nothing at all . Upon the present occasion , he bustled in and out of the kitchen , till Mrs. Dods lost patience , and threatened to pin the dish-clout to his tail ; a menace which he pardoned , in consideration , that in all the countries which he had visited , which are sufficiently civilized to boast of cooks , these artists , toiling in their fiery element , have a privilege to be testy and impatient . He therefore retreated from the torrid region of Mrs. Dods 's microcosm , and employed his time in the usual devices of loiterers , partly by walking for an appetite , partly by observing the progress of his watch towards three o'clock , when he had happily succeeded in getting an employment more serious . His table , in the blue parlour , was displayed with two covers , after the fairest fashion of the Cleikum Inn ; yet the landlady , with a look `` civil but sly , '' contrived to insinuate a doubt whether the clergyman would come , `` when a ' was dune . '' Mr. Touchwood scorned to listen to such an insinuation until the fated hour arrived , and brought with it no Mr. Cargill . The impatient entertainer allowed five minutes for difference of clocks , and variation of time , and other five for the procrastination of one who went little into society .