four o'clock
One descried , too , a scrubby but significant little card , which bore the address of a loan office . The music issued from the parlour behind the shop ; it ceased as Ackroyd approached the counter , and at the sound of his footsteps appeared Mrs. Bower . She was a stout woman of middle age , red of face , much given to laughter , wholesomely vulgar . At four o'clock every afternoon she laid aside her sober garments of the working day and came forth in an evening costume which was the admiration and envy of Paradise Street . Popular from a certain wordy good-humour which she always had at command , she derived from this evening garb a social superiority which friends and neighbours , whether they would or no were constrained to recognise . She was deemed a well-to-do woman , and as such -- Paradise Street held it axiomatic -- might reasonably adorn herself for the respect of those to whom she sold miscellaneous pennyworths . She did not depend upon the business .