five
o'clock
There was Gerald , in his great perplexity and distress , and the household at home in their anxiety ; and last , but worst of all , his fancy would go fluttering about the doors of the sick chamber in Grange Lane , longing and wondering . He asked himself what it could be which had raised that impalpable wall between Lucy and himself -- that barrier too strong to be overthrown , too ethereal to be complained of ; and wondered over and over again what her thoughts were towards him -- whether she thought of him at all , whether she was offended , or simply indifferent ? -- a question which any one else who had observed Lucy as closely could have solved without any difficulty , but which , to the modest and true love of the Perpetual Curate , was at present the grand doubt of all the doubts in the universe . With this matter to settle , and with the consciousness that it was still only five o'clock , and that he was at least one hour beforehand with the world , it is easy to understand why Mr Wentworth mused and loitered over his work , and how , when it was nearly six o'clock , and Sarah and the cook were beginning to stir from their sleep , there still remained only the text written upon the sermon-paper , which was so nicely arranged before him on the table . `` When the wicked man turneth away from the evil of his ways , and doeth that which is lawful and right . '' -- This was the text ; but sitting at the open window , looking out into the garden , where the birds , exempt , as they seemed to think , for once from the vulgar scrutiny of man , were singing at the pitch of all their voices as they prepared for breakfast ; and where the sweet air of the morning breathed into his mind a freshness and hopefulness which youth can never resist , and seduced his thoughts away from all the harder problems of his life to dwell upon the sweeter trouble of that doubt about Lucy , -- was not the best means of getting on with his work . He sat thus leaning back -- sometimes dipping his pen in the ink , and hovering over the paper for two or three seconds at a time , sometimes reading over the words , and making a faint effort to recall his own attention to them ; for , on the whole , perhaps , it is not of much use getting up very early in the morning when the chief consequence of it is , that a man feels he has an hour to spare , and a little time to play before he begins .