three o'clock
`` It sounds very hard , dear , '' she said , lifting eyes to his which he saw were full of tears , `` and as if I did n't care . '' `` My darling , '' he said , taking her into his arms , `` I hope you do n't -- I hope you wo n't care , after to-morrow . And now , do n't you think we 've had enough of Miss Elfrida Bell for the present ? '' At three o'clock , an hour before he expected the Cardiffs , John Kendal ran up the stairs to his studio . The door stood ajar , and with a jealous sense of his possession within , he reproached himself for his carelessness in leaving it so . He had placed the portrait the day before where all the light in the room fell upon it , and his first hasty impression of the place assured him that it stood there still . When he looked directly at it he instinctively shut the door , made a step or two forward , closed his eyes and so stood for a moment , with his hands before them .