six o'clock
Elizabeth decked the task with honour , so that the girls in their khaki stood round her at last glowing , though dumb ! -- and felt themselves -- as she bade them feel -- the comrades-in-arms of their sweethearts and their brothers . Then with the March twilight she was again at Mannering . She changed her bicycling dress , and six o'clock found her at her desk , obediently writing from the Squire 's dictation . He put her through a stiff series of geographical notes , including a number of quotations from Homer and Herodotus , bearing on the spread of Greek culture in the Aegean . During the course of them he broke out once or twice into his characteristic sayings and illustrations , racy or poetic , as usual , and Elizabeth would lift her blue eyes , with the responsive look in them , on which he had begun to think all his real power of work depended . But not a word passed between them on any other subject ; and when it was over she rose , said a quiet good-night , and went away .