four o'clock
Come with me '' -- to Tedcastle -- `` and have a glass of sherry before your dinner : I am sure you must want it , after all you have gone through . '' `` Gather the roses while ye may ; Old time is still a-flying ; And the same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying . '' -- Herrick . It is four o'clock , and a hush , a great stillness , born of oppressive heat , is over all the land . Again the sun is smiting with hot wrath the unoffending earth ; the flowers nod drowsily or lie half dead of languor , their gay leaves touching the ground . `` The sky was blue as the summer sea , The depths were cloudless overhead ; The air was calm as it could be ; There was no sight or sound of dread , '' quotes Luttrell , dreamily , as he strays idly along the garden path , through scented shrubs and all the many-hued children of light and dew . His reverie is lengthened yet not diffuse .