about seven
o’clock
As it was quite impossible for either to convince the other , there the conversation would end , or drift into something in which they were mutually interested , such as natural history and the hygiene of the neighbourhood . Here I may state that Bickley 's keen professional eye was not mistaken when he diagnosed Mrs. Bastin 's state of health as dangerous . As a matter of fact she was suffering from heart disease that a doctor can often recognise by the colour of the lips , etc. , which brought about her death under the following circumstances : Her husband attended some ecclesiastical function at a town over twenty miles away and was to have returned by a train which would have brought him home about five o'clock . As he did not arrive she waited at the station for him until the last train came in about seven o'clock -- without the beloved Basil . Then , on a winter 's night she tore up to the Priory and begged me to lend her a dog-cart in which to drive to the said town to look for him . I expostulated against the folly of such a proceeding , saying that no doubt Basil was safe enough but had forgotten to telegraph , or thought that he would save the sixpence which the wire cost . Then it came out , to Natalie 's and my intense amusement , that all this was the result of her jealous nature of which I have spoken .