five o'clock
or shall I send instead for Roger Adams ? I have even thought of writing invitations to his entire club list . '' `` Oh , I 'll send Arnold myself , '' rejoined Laura , `` he got back just last night , you know . '' `` I saw him coming up at five o'clock when I went to the doctor 's , '' returned Gerty ; and this innocent chance remark plunged Laura immediately into a melancholy which not only arrested the words upon her lips , but seemed to deaden her whole body even to her hands which held her muff . An intolerable suspicion seized her that they were aware of the return of Madame Alta , that they blamed Arnold for something of which they did not speak , that they pitied her because she was deluded into an acceptance of the situation . Though her judgment told her that this suspicion was a mere wild fancy , still she could not succeed in driving it from her thoughts , and the more she struggled against it , the stronger was the hold it gained upon her imagination if not upon her reason . In the effort to banish this persistent torment , she began to talk fast and recklessly of other things , until the animation with which she spoke rekindled the old brilliant fervour in her face .