eleven o'clock
The Vicar rose heavily and went to his roll-top desk . He opened it and began fumbling about in it , looking for things . He was doing this , it seemed to his son-in-law , for quite a long time . But it was only eleven o'clock when Mary heard sounds in the study that terrified her , of a chair overturned and of a heavy body falling to the floor . And then Steven called to her . She found him kneeling on the floor beside her father , loosening his clothes . The Vicar 's face , which she discerned half hidden between the bending head of Rowcliffe and his arms , was purple and horribly distorted .