one o'clock
His presence interrupted the delightful conversation he was carrying on `` under four eyes , '' with Mary Ashburton . He reallythought Berkley a bore , and wondered it had never occurred to him before . Mrs. Ashburton , too , must needs lay down her book ; and the conversation became general . Strange to say , the Swiss dinner-hour of one o'clock , did not come a moment too soon for Flemming . It did not even occur to him that it was early ; for he was seated beside Mary Ashburton , and at dinner one can say so much , without being overheard . When the learned Thomas Diafoirus wooed the fair Angélique , he drew from his pocket a medical thesis , and presented it to her , as the first-fruits of his genius ; and at the same time , invited her , with her father 's permission , to attend the dissection of a woman , upon whom he was to lecture . Paul Flemming did nearly the same thing ; and so often , that it had become a habit .