half after ten
Mrs. Poyser `` Has Her Say Out '' THE next Saturday evening there was much excited discussion at the Donnithorne Arms concerning an incident which had occurred that very day -- no less than a second appearance of the smart man in top-boots said by some to be a mere farmer in treaty for the Chase Farm , by others to be the future steward , but by Mr. Casson himself , the personal witness to the stranger 's visit , pronounced contemptuously to be nothing better than a bailiff , such as Satchell had been before him . No one had thought of denying Mr. Casson 's testimony to the fact that he had seen the stranger ; nevertheless , he proffered various corroborating circumstances . `` I see him myself , '' he said ; `` I see him coming along by the Crab-tree Meadow on a bald-faced hoss . I 'd just been t ' hev a pint -- it was half after ten i ' the fore-noon , when I hev my pint as reg ` lar as the clock -- and I says to Knowles , as druv up with his waggon , ` You 'll get a bit o ' barley to-day , Knowles , ' I says , ` if you look about you ' ; and then I went round by the rick-yard , and towart the Treddles ` on road , and just as I come up by the big ash-tree , I see the man i ' top-boots coming along on a bald-faced hoss -- I wish I may never stir if I did n't . And I stood still till he come up , and I says , ` Good morning , sir , ' I says , for I wanted to hear the turn of his tongue , as I might know whether he was a this-country man ; so I says , ` Good morning , sir : it 'll ` old hup for the barley this morning , I think . There 'll be a bit got hin , if we 've good luck . ' And he says , ` Eh , ye may be raight , there 's noo tallin ' , ' he says , and I knowed by that '' -- here Mr. Casson gave a wink -- `` as he did n't come from a hundred mile off .