four o’clock
Happy , but vaguely anxious . He had no means of ascertaining the time . So many of the church-bells and clock towers had been silenced recently that not one of those welcome sounds penetrated to the dreary desolation of this canal wharf , with its abandoned carts standing ghostlike in a row . Darkness had set in very early in the afternoon , and the heavers had given up work soon after four o'clock . For about an hour after that a certain animation had still reigned round the wharf , men crossing and going , one or two of the barges moving in or out alongside the quay . But for some time now darkness and silence had been the masters in this desolate spot , and that time had seemed to Sir Andrew an eternity . He had hobbled and tethered his horse , and stretched himself out at full length under the cart .