Four o'clock
`` How idiotic I am ! '' she reproved herself gently ; -- we are apt to be gentle with our own foolishness ; it never seems quite so egregious as other people 's -- `` I might be a girl of twenty , after my first proposal , instead of nearly thirty , and a nominal wife of five years ' standing . '' She drew out her watch . Four o'clock . Three mortal hours before she could even think of starting . There was nothing for it but to have recourse to her easel , _ faute de mieux _ . The last words waked her normal self .