About four in the afternoon
It was generally known that Crinkett and the woman had asked for money before they had brought their accusation , and on that account sympathy ran with the Squire of Folking . The mayor , therefore , did not dare to give an order that Caldigate should be removed from off the premises at Puritan Grange , knowing that he was there in search of a wife who was only anxious to place herself in his custody . But nothing was done all that day . About four in the afternoon , while Caldigate was still there , and at a moment in which poor Hester had been reduced by the continuance of her efforts to a state of hysterical prostration , the old man summoned his wife upstairs . She , with a motion to the cook , who still guarded the stairs , obeyed the order , and for a moment left her watch . ` You must let her go , ' said the old man , with tremulous anxiety , beating with his fingers on his knees as he spoke . ` You must let her go . '