about five
o’clock
On the North Side had been erected a number of elegant mansions along what is now known as the North Shore Drive . The present lake wall of stone and granitoid was not then in place , but the road had been well laid out , the intermediate spaces of lawn were lovely to look upon , and the houses were thoroughly new and imposing . When the winter season had passed and the first fine days of the early spring appeared , Mrs. Hale secured a buggy for an afternoon and invited Carrie . They rode first through Lincoln Park and on far out towards Evanston , turning back at four and arriving at the north end of the Shore Drive at about five o'clock . At this time of year the days are still comparatively short , and the shadows of the evening were beginning to settle down upon the great city . Lamps were beginning to burn with that mellow radiance which seems almost watery and translucent to the eye . There was a softness in the air which speaks with an infinite delicacy of feeling to the flesh as well as to the soul .