two in the
afternoon
They had tried their best to make up for Mariette -- with lovely rashers of our own ham , and plum brandy , and patching up my linen , and all sorts of little spoiled-kid tricks -- and I noticed they were still slanging each other in the old familiar way ! But you talk about a difference ! I always had my eye on the door to see if some time or other it would n't get a move on and turn into a woman . So I went and saw the mayor , and set off , yesterday , towards two in the afternoon -- towards fourteen o'clock I might well say , seeing that I had been counting the hours since the day before ! I had just one day of my leave left then . `` As we drew near in the dusk , through the carriage window of the little railway that still keeps going down there on some fag-ends of line , I recognized half the country , and the other half I did n't . Here and there I got the sense of it , all at once , and it came back all fresh to me , and melted away again , just as if it was talking to me .