seven o'clock in the
evening
The light even soaked into the gray walls of Garth in its pastures . The little plum-trees in the Vicarage orchard might have been olive trees twinkling in the sun . Mary was in the Vicar 's bedroom , looking now at the door , and now at her own image in the wardrobe glass . It was seven o'clock in the evening and she had chosen a perilous moment for the glass . She wore a childlike frock of rough green silk ; it had no collar but was cut square at the neck showing her white throat . The square was bordered with an embroidered design of peacock 's eyes . The parted waves of her red hair were burnished with hard brushing ; its coils lay close , and smooth as a thick round cap .