four o'clock in the
afternoon
I ca n't tell you how hard it seemed to me to leave her , for it was the first time we had been parted for so much as a day since she came to the Grange . I thought of her all the while I was at my aunt 's ; who has very fidgety ways , poor old lady , and is n't a pleasant person to be with . I felt quite in a fever of impatience to get home again ; and was very glad when a neighbour 's spring-cart dropped me at the end of the lane , and I saw the gray old chimneys above the tops of the trees . It was four o'clock in the afternoon when I got home ; father was at tea in the oak-parlour where we take our meals , and the house was as quiet as a grave . I came straight to this room , but it was empty ; and when I called Martha , she told me Mrs. Holbrook had gone out at one o'clock in the day , and had not been home since , though she was expected back to dinner at three . She had been away three hours then , and at a time when I knew she could not expect Mr. Holbrook , unless she had received a fresh letter from him to say that he was coming by an earlier train than usual . I asked Martha if there had been any letters for Mrs. Holbrook that day ; and she told me yes , there had been one by the morning post .