about four o'clock
Seven o'clock the next morning was the hour agreed upon , and Mitchelbourne at once searched in Lance 's coat pockets for the letters which he carried . There were only two , superscribed respectively to Mrs. Ufford at `` The Porch '' near Glemham , and to her daughter Brasilia . At `` The Porch '' Mitchelbourne remembered Lance was expected this very evening , and he thought it right at once to ride thither with his gloomy news . Having , therefore , sprinkled the letters plentifully with vinegar and taken such rough precautions as were possible to remove the taint of infection from the letters , he started about four o'clock . The evening was most melancholy . For , though no rain any longer fell , there was a continual pattering of drops from the trees and a ghostly creaking of branches in a light and almost imperceptible wind . The day , too , was falling , the grey overhang of cloud was changing to black , except for one wide space in the west , where a pale spectral light shone without radiance ; and the last of that was fading when he pulled up at a parting of the roads and inquired of a man who chanced to be standing there his way to `` The Porch . ''