three o'clock
`` They must have had an accident , '' thought Mary , and at first she pictured this as a slight affair which simply called for a few hours ' delay at a local garage -- perhaps the engine had overheated , or the battery had failed . But when one o'clock struck , and still no word from the absent pair , Mary 's fancies grew more tragic . By two o'clock she imagined the car overturned at the bottom of some embankment , and both of them badly hurt . At three o'clock she began to have such dire forebodings that she went and woke up Aunt Cordelia , and was on the point of telephoning Wally 's mother when the welcome rumbling of a car was heard under the porte cochère . It was Wally and Helen , and though Helen looked pale she had that air of ownership over her apologetic escort which every woman understands . Mary already divined the end of the story . `` We were coming along all right , '' said Wally , `` and would have been home before ten .