four o'clock
So slipped away a fortnight and more , during which Valencia was the cynosure of all eyes , and knew it also : for Claude Mellot , half to amuse her , and half to tease Elsley , made her laugh many a time by retailing little sayings and doings in her praise and dispraise , picked up from rich Manchester gentlemen , who would fain have married her without a penny , and from strong-minded Manchester ladies , who envied her beauty a little , and set her down , of course , as an empty-minded worldling , and a proud aristocrat . The majority of the reading-parties , meanwhile , thought a great deal more about Valencia than about their books . The Oxford men , it seemed , though of the same mind as the Cambridge men in considering her the model of all perfection , were divided as to their method of testifying the same . Two or three of them , who were given to that simpering and flirting tone with young ladies to which Oxford would-be-fine gentlemen are so pitiably prone , hung about the inn-door to ogle her : contrived always to be walking in the garden when she was there , dressed out as if for High Street at four o'clock on a May afternoon ; tormented Claude by fruitless attempts to get from him an introduction , which he had neither the right nor the mind to give ; and at last -LRB- so Bowie told Claude one night , and Claude told the whole party next morning -RRB- tried to bribe and flatter Valencia 's maid into giving them a bit of ribbon , or a cast-off glove , which had belonged to the idol . Whereon that maiden , in virtuous indignation , told Mr. Bowie , and complained moreover -LRB- as maids are bound to do to valets for whom they have a penchant -RRB- , of their having dared to compliment her on her own good looks : by which act she succeeded , of course , in making Mr. Bowie understand that other people still thought her pretty , if he did not ; and also in arousing in him that jealousy which is often the best helpmate of sweet love . So Mr. Bowie went forth in his might that very evening , and finding two of the Oxford men , informed them in plain Scotch , that , `` Gin he caught them , or any ither such skellums , philandering after his leddies , or his leddies ' maids , he 'd jist knock their empty pows togither . '' To which there was no reply but silence ; for Mr. Bowie stood six feet four without his shoes , and had but the week before performed , for the edification of the Cambridge men , who held him in high honour , a few old Guards ' feats ; such , as cutting in two at one sword-blow a suspended shoulder of mutton ; lifting a long table by his teeth ; squeezing a quart pewter pot flat between his fingers ; and other little recreations of those who are `` born unto Rapha . ''