about three
o'clock
It will be perhaps pleasanter to talk over my proposition as we walk ! '' There was a very faint , spicy odor like wild roses and cinnamon left in the room where Martin Pike stood alone , staring whitely at the open doorway . There was a custom of Canaan , time-worn and seldom honored in the breach , which put Ariel , that afternoon , in easy possession of a coign of vantage commanding the front gate . The heavy Sunday dinner was finished in silence -LRB- on the part of Judge Pike , deafening -RRB- about three o'clock , and , soon after , Mamie tossed a number of cushions out upon the stoop between the cast-iron dogs , -- Sam Warden having previously covered the steps with a rug and placed several garden chairs near by on the grass . These simple preparations concluded , Eugene sprawled comfortably upon the rug , and Mamie seated herself near him , while Ariel wandered with apparent aimlessness about the lawn , followed by the gaze of Mr. Bantry , until Miss Pike begged her , a little petulantly , to join them . She came , looking about her dreamily , and touching to her lips , now and then , with an absent air , a clover blossom she had found in the longer grass against the fence . She stopped to pat the neck of one of the cast-iron deer , and with grave eyes proffered the clover-top first for inspection , then as food .