three o'clock
During the time that these words had been spoken Miss Scarborough had once or twice come into the room , and besought her brother to take some refreshment which she offered him , and then give himself up to rest . But he had refused to be guided by her till he had come to a point in the conversation at which he had found himself thoroughly exhausted . Now she came for the third time , and that period had arrived , so that Mountjoy was told to go about his business , and shoot birds or hunt foxes , in accordance with his natural proclivities . It was then three o'clock on a gloomy December afternoon , and was too late for the shooting of birds ; and as for the hunting of foxes , the hounds were not in the neighborhood . So he resolved to go through the house , and look at all those properties which were so soon to become his own . And he at once strolled into the library . This was a long , gloomy room , which contained perhaps ten thousand volumes , the greater number of which had , in the days of Mountjoy 's early youth , been brought together by his own father ; and they had been bound in the bindings of modern times , so that the shelves were bright , although the room itself was gloomy .