about four o'clock
I am not called upon to heal it , '' meditated she . `` In this , the law of self-preservation is my surest guide . '' Her resolve to remain neutral was sharply and unexpectedly tested the next afternoon . The two girls went out for a ramble about four o'clock , taking the beaten foot-path that led through cultivated fields , and between wooded hills , to a small post-town two miles distant . The day was sunless , but not chilly , and when they had outwalked the hearing of the murmur of rural life that pervaded the barnyard and adjacent `` quarters , '' the silence was oppressive , except when broken by the whirr of a partridge , the melancholy caw of the crows , scared from their feast upon the scattered grains knocked from over-ripe ears of corn during the recent `` fodder-pulling , '' and , as they neared it , by the fretting of a rapid brook over its stony bottom . The pretence of social converse had been given up before the friends cleared the first field beyond the orchard . Rosa 's exquisite tact withheld her from obtruding commonplaces upon the attention of a mind torn by suspense -- distracted between disappointment and outraged pride , and Mabel had not besought her sympathy in her grievous strait .