four o'clock
All that he loved in poetry and nature , had in it something craggy and culminating . The soft and fiery , the subtle and harmonious , seemed to leave him cold . He had no particular love for all those simple natural things , birds , bees , animals , trees , and flowers , that seemed to her precious and divine . Though it was not yet four o'clock she was already beginning to droop like a flower that wants water . But she sat down to her piano , resolutely , till tea came ; playing on and on with a spirit only half present , the other half of her wandering in the Town , seeking for Miltoun . After tea she tried first to read , then to sew , and once more came back to her piano . The clock struck six ; and as if its last stroke had broken the armour of her mind , she felt suddenly sick with anxiety .