five o'clock
As soon as they turned she mechanically took the tea to Henchard , left it , and went away . Reflecting , she endeavoured to assure herself that the movement was an idle eccentricity , and no more . Yet , on the other hand , his subordinate position in an establishment where he once had been master might be acting on him like an irritant poison ; and she finally resolved to caution Donald . Next morning , accordingly , she rose at five o'clock and went into the street . It was not yet light ; a dense fog prevailed , and the town was as silent as it was dark , except that from the rectangular avenues which framed in the borough there came a chorus of tiny rappings , caused by the fall of water-drops condensed on the boughs ; now it was wafted from the West Walk , now from the South Walk ; and then from both quarters simultaneously . She moved on to the bottom of Corn Street , and , knowing his time well , waited only a few minutes before she heard the familiar bang of his door , and then his quick walk towards her . She met him at the point where the last tree of the engirding avenue flanked the last house in the street .