ten o’clock
`` Perhaps it would be better if I married William , '' she thought suddenly , and the thought appeared to loom through the mist like solid ground . She stood there , thinking of her own destiny , and the elder ladies talked on , until they had talked themselves into a decision to ask the young woman to luncheon , and tell her , very friendlily , how such behavior appeared to women like themselves , who knew the world . And then Mrs. Hilbery was struck by a better idea . Messrs. Grateley and Hooper , the solicitors in whose firm Ralph Denham was clerk , had their office in Lincoln 's Inn Fields , and there Ralph Denham appeared every morning very punctually at ten o'clock . His punctuality , together with other qualities , marked him out among the clerks for success , and indeed it would have been safe to wager that in ten years ' time or so one would find him at the head of his profession , had it not been for a peculiarity which sometimes seemed to make everything about him uncertain and perilous . His sister Joan had already been disturbed by his love of gambling with his savings . Scrutinizing him constantly with the eye of affection , she had become aware of a curious perversity in his temperament which caused her much anxiety , and would have caused her still more if she had not recognized the germs of it in her own nature .