three o'clock
Falloden 's first bar examination was immediately ahead ; Sorell was tied to St. Cyprian 's ; and every other companion so far proposed had been rejected with irritation . Unluckily , on this day of his return , the Oxford skies had put on again their characteristic winter gloom . The wonderful fortnight of frost and sun was over ; tempests of wind and deluges of rain were drowning it fast in flood and thaw . The wind shrieked round the little cottage , and though it was little more than three o'clock , darkness was coming fast . Falloden could not keep still . Having made up the fire , he brought in a lamp himself ; he drew the curtains , then undrew them again , apparently that he might examine a stretch of the Oxford road just visible through the growing dark ; or he wandered in and out of the room , his hands in his pockets whistling . Otto watched him with a vague annoyance .