four o'clock
So , later he had sought out his sister and coaxed her into telling him the hair-raising sum to which amounted the `` two or three frocks '' she had had that summer . He had also learned that Mr. Yelverton , the Carrons , the Newlyns , and Théo Joyselle were coming that afternoon , and what the _ real _ reason was that had made the Frenshaws wire they could not come . It had not at all surprised him to hear that the reason given in the wire was utterly false , for , like other people , Kingsmead was bound by his horizon . On the whole , his day had been a busy one , and the valuable acquisitions of knowledge that I have mentioned , together with a few scraps of information on stable and garage matters , had brought him quite comfortably up to four o'clock , when , as he idled across the lawn , that rum old carp had caught , and held , his eye . It was a very warm day in October , a day most unusual in its mellow beauty ; soft sunshine lay on the lawn and lent splendour to the not very large Tudor house off to the left . The air of gentle , self-satisfied decrepitude worn by the old place was for the moment lost , and it looked new , clean-cut and almost gaudy , as it must have done in the distant days when it was young . It was a becoming day for the ancient building , as candle-light is becoming to an old beauty and brings back a fleeting and pathetic air of youth to her still lovely features .