three o'clock
Two hours were spent in the stores , every minute consumed in the closest study of fabrics , miles of floor-walking and volumes of questioning -- all composing the art and science of shopping , the one sphere in which woman can carry the weight of a fur cloak and do a hundred-yard dash or a mile run to the most distant department , while her man companion takes his coat off and worms his way twenty feet to the necktie counter , which is always found opposite the main entrance . Ten feet farther in , it would fail . Gabrielle shopped with system , to save time , and then used the time she saved to shop some more . Not long after three o'clock on that memorable Wednesday , Mrs. Gibson , Nellie and Gabrielle gathered around the enthroned Jim in his castle retreat to talk it all over again for the thousandth time . `` The wedding ring fitted the first time we tried it , and so do all my clothes , ties , gloves and hats , '' said Jim , with a smile intended to aggravate argument . `` It is no trouble at all for me to get married . '' `` You 're not original , though , '' laughed Nellie .