three o'clock in the morning
This point was not intolerably difficult to determine , as she sat there waiting , only because even what was righteous in that reprobation could not present itself to her as fruitful or efficient . What could Lionel frustrate , after all , and what intelligent or authoritative step was he capable of taking ? Mixed with all that now haunted her was her consciousness of what his own absence at such an hour represented in the way of the unedifying . He might be at some sporting club or he might be anywhere else ; at any rate he was not where he ought to be at three o'clock in the morning . Such the husband such the wife , she said to herself ; and she felt that Selina would have a kind of advantage , which she grudged her , if she should come in and say : ` And where is _ he _ , please -- where is he , the exalted being on whose behalf you have undertaken to preach so much better than he himself practises ? ' But still Selina failed to come in -- even to take that advantage ; yet in proportion as her waiting was useless did the girl find it impossible to go to bed . A new fear had seized her , the fear that she would never come back at all -- that they were already in the presence of the dreaded catastrophe .