five o'clock
Readjustments 406 VIII . The Test 444 IX . The Past 476 X. Dream and the Reality 501 After a day of rain the sun came out suddenly at five o'clock and threw a golden bar into the deep Victorian gloom of the front parlour . On the window-sill , midway between the white curtains , a pot of blue hyacinths stood in a cracked china plate , and as the sunlight shone into the room , the scent of the blossoms floated to the corner where Gabriella was patiently pulling basting threads out of the hem of a skirt . For a minute her capable hands stopped at their work , and raising her smooth dark head she looked compassionately at her sister Jane , who was sitting , like a frozen image of martyrdom , in the middle of the long horsehair sofa . Three times within the last twelve months Jane had fled from her husband 's roof to the protection of her widowed mother , a weak person of excellent ancestry , who could hardly have protected a sparrow had one taken refuge beneath her skirt .