four o’clock in the afternoon
They drove into the country , and the Baroness , leaning far back and swaying her lace-fringed parasol , looked to right and to left and surveyed the way-side objects . After a while she pronounced them _ affreux _ . Her brother remarked that it was apparently a country in which the foreground was inferior to the _ plans reculés _ ; and the Baroness rejoined that the landscape seemed to be all foreground . Felix had fixed with his new friends the hour at which he should bring his sister ; it was four o'clock in the afternoon . The large , clean-faced house wore , to his eyes , as the barouche drove up to it , a very friendly aspect ; the high , slender elms made lengthening shadows in front of it . The Baroness descended ; her American kinsfolk were stationed in the portico . Felix waved his hat to them , and a tall , lean gentleman , with a high forehead and a clean shaven face , came forward toward the garden gate .