six o'clock in the evening
`` It 's a good point of yours about the barn , '' he said . `` What you say reminds me of that very jolly thing of Kipling 's about the old mill-wheel that began by grinding corn and ended by driving dynamos ... `` Only I admit that barn does n't exactly drive a dynamo ... `` To be frank , it 's just a pleasure barn ... `` The country can afford it ... '' Section 2 He left it at that for the time , but throughout the afternoon Mr. Direck had the gratification of seeing his thought floating round and round in the back-waters of Mr. Britling 's mental current . If it did n't itself get into the stream again its reflection at any rate appeared and reappeared . He was taken about with great assiduity throughout the afternoon , and he got no more than occasional glimpses of the rest of the Dower House circle until six o'clock in the evening . Meanwhile the fountains of Mr. Britling 's active and encyclopædic mind played steadily . He was inordinately proud of England , and he abused her incessantly . He wanted to state England to Mr. Direck as the amiable summation of a grotesque assembly of faults .