about four o'clock
It was she who sought me , and ran after me , and where has all that love gone to ? Gone to this fellow ; that 's plain enough . When a girl like her is so comfortably cool and easy , it 's because her heart is off somewhere else . '' This conversation took place about four o'clock in as fine an October afternoon as you could wish to see . The sun , sloping westward , turned to gold the thousand blue scales of the ever-heaving sea , and soft , pine-scented winds were breathing everywhere through the forests , waving the long , swaying films of heavy moss , and twinkling the leaves of the silver birches that fluttered through the leafy gloom . The moon , already in the sky , gave promise of a fine moonlight night ; and the wild and lonely stillness of the island , and the thoughts of leaving in a few days , all conspired to foster the restless excitement in our hero 's mind into a kind of romantic unrest . Now , in some such states , a man disappointed in one woman will turn to another , because , in a certain way and measure , her presence stills the craving and fills the void .