three to four in
the afternoon
`` Of course , I shall be blown into atoms some fine day , '' he would say ; `` but after all , that is better than being slowly boiled down into pulp . '' The House had met on a Friday , again on the Saturday morning , and the debate on the Address had been adjourned till the Monday . On the Sunday , Phineas determined that he would see Lady Laura . She professed to be always at home on Sunday , and from three to four in the afternoon her drawing-room would probably be half full of people . There would , at any rate , be comers and goers , who would prevent anything like real conversation between himself and her . But for a few minutes before that he might probably find her alone , and he was most anxious to see whether her reception of him , as a member of Parliament , would be in any degree warmer than that of his other friends . Hitherto he had found no such warmth since he came to London , excepting that which had glowed in the bosom of Mrs. Bunce .