about midday
His curious and sudden antipathy to ecclesiastical work , both episcopal and noncomformist , which had risen in him when suffering under a smarting sense of misconception , remained with him in cold blood , less from any fear of renewed censure than from an ultra-conscientiousness which would not allow him to seek a living out of those who would disapprove of his ways ; also , too , from a sense of inconsistency between his former dogmas and his present practice , hardly a shred of the beliefs with which he had first gone up to Christminster now remaining with him . He was mentally approaching the position which Sue had occupied when he first met her . On a Saturday evening in May , nearly three years after Arabella 's recognition of Sue and himself at the agricultural show , some of those who there encountered each other met again . It was the spring fair at Kennetbridge , and , though this ancient trade-meeting had much dwindled from its dimensions of former times , the long straight street of the borough presented a lively scene about midday . At this hour a light trap , among other vehicles , was driven into the town by the north road , and up to the door of a temperance inn . There alighted two women , one the driver , an ordinary country person , the other a finely built figure in the deep mourning of a widow . Her sombre suit , of pronounced cut , caused her to appear a little out of place in the medley and bustle of a provincial fair .