four o'clock
Poor Ruby Ruggles ! Living down at Sheep 's Acre , on the Waveney , she had heard both too much and too little of the great world beyond her ken . There were , she thought , many glorious things to be seen which she would never see were she in these her early years to become the wife of John Crumb , the dealer in meal and pollard at Bungay . Therefore she was full of a wild joy , half joy half fear , when she got her letter ; and , therefore , punctually at four o'clock on that Sunday she was ensconced among the Sheepstone Birches , so that she might see without much danger of being seen . Poor Ruby Ruggles , who was left to be so much mistress of herself at the time of her life in which she most required the kindness of a controlling hand ! Mr. Ruggles held his land , or the greater part of it , on what is called a bishop 's lease , Sheep 's Acre Farm being a part of the property which did belong to the bishopric of Elmham , and which was still set apart for its sustentation ; -- but he also held a small extent of outlying meadow which belonged to the Carbury estate , so that he was one of the tenants of Roger Carbury . Those Sheepstone Birches , at which Felix made his appointment , belonged to Roger .