four o’clock
The question , What if I should find him lying still on the damp earth , fairly dying of cold and exhaustion -- or already stark and chill ? thrust itself most unpleasantly upon my mind , and the appalling possibility pictured itself with painful vividness to my imagination as I approached the spot where I had left him . But no , thank heaven , both man and horse were gone , and nothing was left to witness against me but two objects -- unpleasant enough in themselves to be sure , and presenting a very ugly , not to say murderous appearance -- in one place , the hat saturated with rain and coated with mud , indented and broken above the brim by that villainous whip-handle ; in another , the crimson handkerchief , soaking in a deeply tinctured pool of water -- for much rain had fallen in the interim . Bad news flies fast : it was hardly four o'clock when I got home , but my mother gravely accosted me with -- ` Oh , Gilbert ! -- Such an accident ! Rose has been shopping in the village , and she 's heard that Mr. Lawrence has been thrown from his horse and brought home dying ! ' This shocked me a trifle , as you may suppose ; but I was comforted to hear that he had frightfully fractured his skull and broken a leg ; for , assured of the falsehood of this , I trusted the rest of the story was equally exaggerated ; and when I heard my mother and sister so feelingly deploring his condition , I had considerable difficulty in preventing myself from telling them the real extent of the injuries , as far as I knew them .