Five o'clock
The field labourers he had met had been able to give him no information . There was nothing to be done but to wait , and wait , and wait . Robert had mounted a fresh horse and had gone off to scour the country , wondering not a little that there should be such a fuss about a day 's fishing . Five o'clock came , and afternoon tea , usually the pleasantest hour of the day ; for in this summer-time the five o'clock tea-table was prepared in the rose garden in front of the drawing-room , under a Japanese umbrella , and in the shade of a screen of magnolia and Portugal laurel , mock orange and guelder rose , that had been growing for half a century . To-day Lady Palliser and her step-daughter took their tea in silent dejection . They had grown weary of comforting each other -- weary of all hopeful speculations . It was on the stroke of six -- the boy and his companion had been away nearly twelve hours .