five in the afternoon
She ascended to her bedroom and dressed herself with scrupulous care . To an onlooker her beauty would have made her feelings almost seem reasonable . The gloomy corner into which accident as much as indiscretion had brought this woman might have led even a moderate partisan to feel that she had cogent reasons for asking the Supreme Power by what right a being of such exquisite finish had been placed in circumstances calculated to make of her charms a curse rather than a blessing . It was five in the afternoon when she came out from the house ready for her walk . There was material enough in the picture for twenty new conquests . The rebellious sadness that was rather too apparent when she sat indoors without a bonnet was cloaked and softened by her outdoor attire , which always had a sort of nebulousness about it , devoid of harsh edges anywhere ; so that her face looked from its environment as from a cloud , with no noticeable lines of demarcation between flesh and clothes . The heat of the day had scarcely declined as yet , and she went along the sunny hills at a leisurely pace , there being ample time for her idle expedition .