ten o'clock
`` Certainly not ; certainly not , '' said the Doctor . And then the interview was at an end . Mr. Peacocke , when he went away from the Rectory , did not at once return to his own house , but went off for a walk alone . It was now nearly midsummer , and there was broad daylight till ten o'clock . It was after nine when he left the Doctor 's , but still there was time for a walk which he knew well through the fields , which would take him round by Bowick Wood , and home by a path across the squire 's park and by the church . An hour would do it , and he wanted an hour to collect his thoughts before he should see his wife , and discuss with her , as he would be bound to do , all that had passed between him and the Doctor . He had said that he could not ask her advice .