a quarter past six
Anecdotes came back to him , vaguely remembered , heard he could n't have said when or where , of poor artists for whom life had been rendered difficult by wives who would n't allow them the use of the living female model and who made scenes if they encountered on the staircase such sources of inspiration . These ladies struck him as vulgar and odious persons , with whom it seemed grotesque that Julia should have anything in common . Of course she was not his wife yet , and of course if she were he should have washed his hands of every form of activity requiring the services of the sitter ; but even these qualifications left him with a power to wince at the way in which the woman he was so sure he loved just escaped ranking herself with the Philistines . At a quarter past six he rang a bell and told the servant who answered it that he was going and that Mrs. Dallow was to be informed as soon as she came in that he had expected to find her and had waited an hour and a quarter . But he had just reached the doorstep of departure when her brougham , emerging from the evening mist , stopped in front of the house . Nick stood there hanging back till she got out , allowing the servants only to help her . She saw him -- she was less veiled than his mental vision of her ; but this did n't prevent her pausing to give an order to the coachman , a matter apparently requiring some discussion .