three o'clock
After she left the Beauty Parlour Marie had nowhere to go . There was no Rokeby to give her tea in his comfortable office while he offered her business advice ; he had been very good with his advice over the question of Marie 's inheritance . Neither was there a Julia to ring up and invite to tea at one of the numberless cosy teashops of the West End . Marie turned in , at three o'clock , to a matinée and bought an upper circle seat , a few minutes late for the rise of the curtain on the first act of an ultra-modern play . The play was all about marriage . It dissected marriage into a thousand pieces , and held every piece which was not turned into tragedy up to ridicule . It fostered all the nonsense which fretted in idle women 's hearts , and touched many sore spots in others ; and made men smile cynically as if saying , `` That 's got it to the life . ''