about three o'clock
So she continued to breakfast in bed at the conservative hour of ten o'clock ; continued to superintend the rehabilitation of two rooms on the second floor which Jenks , to his rheumatic distress , was redecorating in accordance with the latest whim of his mistress ; continued in all things to order her life exactly as she had ordered it for twenty years . It was now the very end of September , and autumn was more than ever in the air . There was none of the chill ocean breath which in Boston had already begun to make itself unpleasantly evident , and Helen found the keenest enjoyment in walking about the city , which heretofore she had seen principally from the windows of street cars and taxicabs . It was about three o'clock of a Saturday afternoon at the close of her second week in New York that she started northward up Fifth Avenue , casting , as she turned , one backward look at the beauty of the Washington Arch , white in the sunshine . She herself , after the first few blocks , took the west side of the avenue , for the afternoon sun was unexpectedly warm . When she came to Fourteenth Street , she paused to allow the passage of a number of street cars and other vehicles which were figuratively champing their bits till the Jove-like person in blue set them free to move . And as she stood there , she became aware of a voice behind her , which said : -- `` You have chosen a beautiful day for a walk , Miss Maitland , '' and turning , she faced Mr. Richard Smith of the Guardian .