five o'clock
I am convinced that our little guest would like to eat some of those peas . Pass them to him , Sietske . '' Walter had grasped the import of Holsma 's words , and also the meaning of this transition to the peas . Walter felt -- without putting his feelings into words -- that the pedantry of the schoolroom had been put aside at five o'clock , and that his host merely wanted to give him a friendly warning against dogmatic bigotry , without tainting the fresh , wholesome atmosphere of the dining-room . Despite his shy , retiring nature -- or , better , in connection with this characteristic -- Walter was an extremely intelligent boy . This fact had escaped almost everybody he had come in contact with because of his lack of self-confidence , which prevented him from revealing his true self . He usually seemed to comprehend more slowly than others ; but this was because he was less easily satisfied with the result of his thinking .