About three o'clock
The letter she thought was perfect , but not so perfect as was Mr Whittlestaff . When she had read the letter , although she had pressed it to her bosom and kissed it a score of times , although she had declared that it was the letter of one who was from head to foot a man , still there was room for that jealousy of which John Gordon had spoken . When Mary had said to herself that he was of all human beings surely the best , it was to Mr Whittlestaff and not to John Gordon that she made allusion . About three o'clock on that day Mr Whittlestaff came home . The pony-carriage had gone to meet him , but Mary remained purposely out of the way . She could not rush out to greet him , as she would have done had his absence been occasioned by any other cause . But he had no sooner taken his place in the library than he sent for her .