three in the afternoon
`` Please God ! Your hand in mine , Eve , my lamb , and let us talk of ourselves and mother : the time is short . '' They sat hand in hand , and never mentioned Lucy 's name again ; and , strange to say , it was David who consoled Eve ; for , now the battle was lost , her spirit seemed to have all deserted her , and she kept bursting out crying every now and then irrelevantly . It was three in the afternoon . David was sitting by the window , and Eve packing his chest in the same room , not to be out of his sight a minute , when suddenly he started up and cried , `` There she is , '' and an instinctive unreasonable joy illumined his face ; the next moment his countenance fell . The carriage passed down the street . `` I remember now , '' muttered David , `` I heard she was to go sailing , and Mr. Talboys was to be skipper of the boat .