five o'clock
I 've see 'd many a time , if you help a man wi ' a present in a neeborly way , it sweetens his blood -- he thinks it kind on you ; but the parish shillins turn it sour -- he niver thinks 'em enough . ' In illustration of this opinion Mr. Jerome had a large store of details about such persons as Jim Hardy , the coal-carrier , ` as lost his hoss ' . and Sally Butts , ` as hed to sell her mangle , though she was as decent a woman as need to be ' ; to the hearing of which details Janet seriously inclined ; and you would hardly desire to see a prettier picture than the kind-faced white-haired old man telling these fragments of his simple experience as he walked , with shoulders slightly bent , among the moss-roses and espalier apple-trees , while Janet in her widow 's cap , her dark eyes bright with interest , went listening by his side , and little Lizzie , with her nankeen bonnet hanging down her back , toddled on before them . Mrs. Jerome usually declined these lingering strolls , and often observed , ` I niver see the like to Mr. Jerome when he 's got Mrs. Dempster to talk to ; it sinnifies nothin ' to him whether we 've tea at four or at five o'clock ; he 'd go on till six , if you 'd let him alone -- he 's like off his head . ' However , Mrs. Jerome herself could not deny that Janet was a very pretty-spoken woman : ` She aly 's says , she niver gets sich pikelets ' as mine nowhere ; I know that very well -- other folks buy 'em at shops -- thick , unwholesome things , you might as well eat a sponge . ' The sight of little Lizzie often stirred in Janet 's mind a sense of the childlessness which had made a fatal blank in her life . She had fleeting thoughts that perhaps among her husband 's distant relatives there might be some children whom she could help to bring up , some little girl whom she might adopt ; and she promised herself one day or other to hunt out a second cousin of his -- a married woman , of whom he had lost sight for many years .