five o'clock
Well , sir , five o'clock struck , and Mrs. Holbrook had not come home . I began to feel seriously uneasy about her . I told my father so ; but he took the matter lightly enough at first , saying it was no business of ours , and that Mrs. Holbrook was just as well able to take care of herself as any one else . But after five o'clock I could n't rest a minute longer ; so I put on my bonnet and shawl and went down by the river-bank , after sending one of the farm-labourers to look for my poor dear in the opposite direction . It 's a very lonely walk at the best of times , though a few of the country folks do go that way between Malsham and Crosber on market-days . There 's scarcely a house to be seen for miles , except Wyncomb Farmhouse , Stephen Whitelaw 's place , which lies a little way back from the river-bank , about a mile from here ; besides that and a solitary cottage here and there , you wo n't see a sign of human life for four or five miles . Anybody might be pushed into the river and made away with in broad daylight , and no one need be the wiser .