about
six o'clock
Mark bicycled home that afternoon with a tall thin volume called _ Ritual Notes _ , so tall that when it was in his pocket he could feel it digging him in the ribs every time he was riding up the least slope . That night in his bedroom he practised with the help of the wash-stand and its accessories the technique of serving at Low Mass , and in his enthusiasm he bicycled over to Meade Cantorum in time to attend both the Low Mass at seven said by Mr. Dorward and the Low Mass at eight said by Mr. Ogilvie . He was able to detect mistakes that were made by the village boys who served that Sunday morning , and he vowed to himself that the Monday Mass for the Emperor Napoleon should not be disfigured by such inaccuracy or clumsiness . He declined the usual invitation to stay to supper after Evening Prayer that he might have time to make perfection more perfect in the seclusion of his own room , and when he set out about six o'clock of a sun-drowsed morning in early August , apart from a faint anxiety about the _ Lavabo _ , he felt secure of his accomplishment . It was only when he reached the church that he remembered he had made no arrangement about borrowing a cassock or a cotta , an omission that in the mood of grand seriousness in which he had undertaken his responsibility seemed nothing less than abominable . He did not like to go to the Vicarage and worry Mr. Ogilvie who could scarcely fail to be amused , even contemptuously amused at such an ineffective beginning . Besides , ever since Mr. Dorward 's arrival the Vicar had been slightly irritable .