four o'clock
How had Gregory been able , living with Karen , to have formed such an insensate conception of Mercedes ? The girl was stupid , acquiescent ; she had shown no tact , no skill , no clarifying courage . Mrs. Forrester determined to show them all -- to talk to Karen . She drove to St. James 's at four o'clock that afternoon and Barker told her that Mrs. Jardine was in the drawing-room . Visitors , evidently , were with her , and it affected Mrs. Forrester very unpleasantly , as Barker led her along the passage , to hear rich harmonies of music filling the flat . She had expected to be perhaps ushered into a darkened bedroom ; to administer comfort and sympathy to a shattered creature before administering reproof and counsel . But Karen not only was up ; she was not alone .