three o'clock
On all sides he encountered the friendliest interest and civility from the townspeople . The news of his arrival had spread over the place with incredible swiftness . Scores of absolute strangers turned to him and tendered to him the welcome to be found in a broad and friendly smile . Shortly after three o'clock he set forth upon his new adventure . Assailed by a strange and unaccustomed timidity , -- he would have called it bashfulness had Viola been other than his sister -- he approached the young lady 's home by the longest and most round-about way , a course which caused him to make the complete circuit of the three-acre pond situated a short distance above the public square -- a shallow body of water dignified during the wet season of the year by the high-sounding title of `` Lake Stansbury , '' but spoken of scornfully as the `` slough '' after the summer 's sun had reduced its surface to a few scattered wallows , foul and green with scum . It was now full of water and presented quite an imposing appearance to the new citizen as he skirted its brush-covered banks ; in his ignorance he was counting the probability of one day building a handsome home on the edge of this tiny lake . A man working in a garden pointed out to him Mrs. Gwyn 's house half-hidden among the trees at the foot of a small slope .