four o'clock
`` Dom her handsome face . Goin ' agin a chap -- workin ' agin him , an ' settin ' hersen i ' his road . Blast me , '' grinding his teeth -- `` Blast me if I dunnot ha ' it out wi ' her ! '' So cursing , and alternating his curses with raging silence , he trudged on his way until four o'clock , when he was in sight of the cottage upon the Knoll Road -- the cottage where Joan and Liz lay asleep upon their poor bed , with the child between them . Joan had not been asleep long . The child had been unusually fretful , and had kept her awake . So she was the more easily awakened from her first light and uneasy slumber by a knock on the door .