Three o'clock
And so they went back and spent a merry evening , all except poor Rose , who , ere she went back , had poured all her sorrows into Lady Grenville 's ear . For the kind woman , knowing that she was motherless and guileless , carried her off into Mrs. St. Leger 's chamber , and there entreated her to tell the truth , and heaped her with pity but with no comfort . For indeed , what comfort was there to give ? * * * * * Three o'clock , upon a still pure bright midsummer morning . A broad and yellow sheet of ribbed tide-sands , through which the shallow river wanders from one hill-foot to the other , whispering round dark knolls of rock , and under low tree-fringed cliffs , and banks of golden broom . A mile below , the long bridge and the white walled town , all sleeping pearly in the soft haze , beneath a cloudless vault of blue . The white glare of dawn , which last night hung high in the northwest , has travelled now to the northeast , and above the wooded wall of the hills the sky is flushing with rose and amber .