four o'clock in the afternoon
Slight they may be , but vivid and genuine , merely because the power to break them is within the grasp of each , and there is no reason for continuance except a true desire that continue they shall . When two people have been married for years they seem to become unconscious of each other 's bodily presence so that they move as if alone , speak aloud things which they do not expect to be answered , and in general seem to experience all the comfort of solitude without its loneliness . The joint lives of Ridley and Helen had arrived at this stage of community , and it was often necessary for one or the other to recall with an effort whether a thing had been said or only thought , shared or dreamt in private . At four o'clock in the afternoon two or three days later Mrs. Ambrose was standing brushing her hair , while her husband was in the dressing-room which opened out of her room , and occasionally , through the cascade of water -- he was washing his face -- she caught exclamations , `` So it goes on year after year ; I wish , I wish , I wish I could make an end of it , '' to which she paid no attention . `` It 's white ? Or only brown ? '' Thus she herself murmured , examining a hair which gleamed suspiciously among the brown .