three o'clock
It was soon after two o'clock that Pollyooly made the acquaintance of the boy Edward , or the boy Edward made the acquaintance of Pollyooly . It is difficult to be sure how these things happened . But both of them were lonely ; Pollyooly was of far too simple and direct a nature to be much hampered by the cold conventions of a sophisticated civilisation ; and Edward was but ten . For all his extreme youth , he was an agreeable companion ; and so it came about that Pollyooly , who had meant to return to the house at three o'clock , was detained by Edward and the sea till half-past four . She was not loth to be detained ; she was indeed pleased to be giving the duchess her full measure of hours , and the lawyer and detective a really good run for their money . But as a matter of fact they did no running at all that afternoon . At three o'clock the replete detective returned with the lunch of the raging lawyer .