about four o’clock
To what purpose this half-revelation ? Unless , indeed , he wished to learn once and for ever , by the gentlest of repulses , that his homage was only welcome so long as it kept well within conventional terms . He passed a month of distracted idleness , until there came a day when the need to see Amy was so imperative that it mastered every consideration . He donned his best clothes , and about four o'clock presented himself at Mrs Yule 's house . By ill luck there happened to be at least half a dozen callers in the drawing-room ; the strappado would have been preferable , in his eyes , to such an ordeal as this . Moreover , he was convinced that both Amy and her mother received him with far less cordiality than on the last occasion . He had expected it , but he bit his lips till the blood came .