six o'clock
But it was less easy to find out whether she ever left it , and if so , at what time of day . He could not mount guard in the long corridor ; and the stewardesses on the _ Lithuania _ were mature , experienced and uncommunicative women , their sole weakness being an occasional tendency to imagine that they , and not the captain , were in supreme charge of the steamer . However , Edward Henry did at last achieve his desire . And on the third morning , at a little before six o'clock , he met a muffled Isabel Joy on the D deck . The D deck was wet , having just been swabbed ; and a boat -- chosen for that dawn 's boat-drill -- ascended past them on its way from sea-level to the dizzy boat-deck above ; on the other side of an iron barrier , large crowds of early-rising third-class passengers were standing and talking and staring at the oblong slit of sea which was the only prospect offered by the D deck ; it was the first time that Edward Henry aboard had set eyes on a steerage passenger ; with all the conceit natural to the occupant of a costly state-room , he had unconsciously assumed that he and his like had sole possession of the ship . Isabel responded to his greeting in a very natural way . The sharp freshness of the summer morning at sea had its tonic effect on both of them ; and as for Edward Henry , he lunged and plunged at once into the subject which alone preoccupied and exasperated him .