three o’clock
The sharp sound of a voice , almost as metallic as the rap that followed it , had ceased ; the tramping of footsteps on the gravel had died out . Mrs Tulliver 's blond face seemed aged ten years by the last thirty hours ; the poor woman 's mind had been busy divining when her favourite things were being knocked down by the terrible hammer ; her heart had been fluttering at the thought that first one thing and then another had gone to be identified as hers in the hateful publicity of the Golden Lion ; and all the while she had to sit and make no sign of this inward agitation . Such things bring lines in well-rounded faces , and broaden the streaks of white among the hairs that once looked as if they had been dipped in pure sunshine . Already , at three o'clock , Kezia , the good-hearted , bad-tempered housemaid , who regarded all people that came to the sale as her personal enemies , the dirt on whose feet was of a peculiarly vile quality , had begun to scrub and swill with an energy much assisted by a continual low muttering against `` folks as came to buy up other folk 's things , '' and made light of `` scrazing '' the tops of mahogany tables over which better folks than themselves had had to -- suffer a waste of tissue through evaporation . She was not scrubbing indiscriminately , for there would be further dirt of the same atrocious kind made by people who had still to fetch away their purchases ; but she was bent on bringing the parlour , where that `` pipe-smoking pig , '' the bailiff , had sat , to such an appearance of scant comfort as could be given to it by cleanliness and the few articles of furniture bought in for the family . Her mistress and the young folks should have their tea in it that night , Kezia was determined . It was between five and six o'clock , near the usual teatime , when she came upstairs and said that Master Tom was wanted .