four o'clock
But again , the fact that she was now clearly impossible for him , so that even a degrading submission on his part could no longer secure her , served only to bring her attractiveness into greater relief . With the fear gone that a sudden impulse to possess her might lead him to stultify himself , he could see more clearly than ever why she was and promised always to be to him the very dearest woman in the world -- dearest in spite of all he could reason about so lucidly . He felt , then , a little shock of unreasoning joy to find one night that they were dining together at the Oldakers ' . At four o'clock he had received a hasty note signed `` Fidelia Oldaker , '' penned in the fine , precise script of some young ladies ' finishing school -- perhaps extinct now for fifty years -- imploring him , if aught of chivalry survived within his breast , to fetch his young grandfather and dine with her that evening . Two men had inconsiderately succumbed , at this eleventh hour , to the prevailing grip-epidemic , and the lady threw herself confidently on the well-known generosity of the Bines male -- `` like one of the big , stout nets those acrobatic people fall into from their high bars , '' she concluded . Uncle Peter was more than willing . He liked the Oldakers .