six o'clock
It is not too much to say that though he was in himself distinctly reserved and apart from the average majority of men , the quiet exercise of his influence over the village of St. Rest had resulted in so attracting and fastening the fibres of love and confidence in all the hearts about him to his own , that anything of serious harm occurring to himself , would have been considered in the light of real fatality and ruin to the whole community . When a clergyman can succeed in establishing such complete trust and sympathy between himself and his parishioners , there can be no question of his fitness for the high vocation to which he has been ordained . When , on the contrary , one finds a village or town where the inhabitants are split up into small and quarrelsome sects , and are more or less in a state of objective ferment against the minister who should be their ruling head , the blame is presumably more with the minister than with those who dispute his teaching , inasmuch as he must have fallen far below the expected standard in some way or other , to have thus incurred general animosity . `` If all fails , '' mused Walden presently , his thoughts again reverting to the Five Sisters ' question , -- `` If Bainton does his errand awkwardly , -- if the lady will not see him , -- if any one of the thousand things do happen that are quite likely to happen , and so spoil all chance of interceding with Miss Vancourt to spare the trees , -- why then I will go myself to-morrow morning to the scene of intended massacre before six o'clock . I will be there before an axe is lifted ! And if Bainton meant anything at all by his hint , others will be there too ! Yes !