About five o'clock
Mrs. Oke spent her day wandering from one room to another , and from the garden to the greenhouse , seeing whether all was in order , when , as a matter of fact , all was always in order at Okehurst . She did not give me any sitting , and not a word was spoken about Alice Oke or Christopher Lovelock . Indeed , to a casual observer , it might have seemed as if all that craze about Lovelock had completely departed , or never existed . About five o'clock , as I was strolling among the red-brick round-gabled outhouses -- each with its armorial oak -- and the old-fashioned spalliered kitchen and fruit garden , I saw Mrs. Oke standing , her hands full of York and Lancaster roses , upon the steps facing the stables . A groom was currycombing a horse , and outside the coach-house was Mr. Oke 's little high-wheeled cart . `` Let us have a drive ! '' suddenly exclaimed Mrs. Oke , on seeing me .