five o'clock
They told each other of their doings throughout the forenoon ; Trina showed her purchases , McTeague recounted the progress of an operation . At one o'clock they separated , the dentist returning to the `` Parlors , '' Trina settling to her work on the Noah 's ark animals . At about three o'clock she put this work away , and for the rest of the afternoon was variously occupied -- sometimes it was the mending , sometimes the wash , sometimes new curtains to be put up , or a bit of carpet to be tacked down , or a letter to be written , or a visit -- generally to Miss Baker -- to be returned . Towards five o'clock the old woman whom they had hired for that purpose came to cook supper , for even Trina was not equal to the task of preparing three meals a day . This woman was French , and was known to the flat as Augustine , no one taking enough interest in her to inquire for her last name ; all that was known of her was that she was a decayed French laundress , miserably poor , her trade long since ruined by Chinese competition . Augustine cooked well , but she was otherwise undesirable , and Trina lost patience with her at every moment . The old French woman 's most marked characteristic was her timidity .