about three o'clock
Mr Slope was madly in love , but hardly knew it . The signora spitted him , as a boy does a cockchafer on a cork , that she might enjoy the energetic agony of his gyrations . And she knew very well what she was doing . Mr Slope having added to his person all such adornments as are possible to a clergyman making a morning visit , such as a clean neck tie , clean handkerchief , new gloves , and a soupcon of not necessary scent , called about three o'clock at the doctor 's house . At about this hour the signora was almost always in the back drawing-room . The mother had not come down . The doctor was out or in his own room .