about five o'clock
Still it was not a pleasant day for Miss Vesta . Mrs. Pryor never left her side , declaring that _ this _ duty at least she could and would perform , and Vesta might be assured she would never desert her ; and the stream of talk about the Darracott blood , the family portraits , and the astonishing moral obliquity of most persons except Mrs. Pryor herself , flowed on and around and over Miss Vesta 's aching head till she felt that she was floating away on waves of the fluid which is thicker than water . In the afternoon a bolt fell . It was about five o'clock , near the time for Doctor Stedman 's daily visit , when the door flew open without knock or ring , and Tragedy appeared on the threshold in the person of Mrs. Malvina Weight . Speechless , she stood in the doorway and beckoned . She had been running , a method of locomotion for which nature had not intended her ; her breath came in quick gasps , and her face was as the face of a Savoy cabbage . `` For pity 's sake ! ''