six o'clock
So , to Stafford 's mind , Byng was the more likely to be swept away on a sudden flood that would bear him out to the sea of matrimony . He had put his question out of curiosity , and he had not to wait for a reply . It came frankly and instantly : `` Why , I was at Al ` mah 's house in Bruton Street at eight o'clock this morning -- with the milkman and the newsboy ; and you would n't believe it , but I saw her , too . She 'd been up since six o'clock , she said . Could n't sleep for excitement and pain , but looking like a pansy blossom all the same , rigged out as pretty as could be in her boudoir , and a nurse doing the needful . It 's an odd dark kind of beauty she has , with those full lips and the heavy eyebrows . Well , it was a bull in a china-shop , as you might judge -- and thank you kindly , Mr. Byng , with such a jolly laugh , and ever and ever and ever so grateful and so wonderfully -- thoughtful , I think , was the word , as though one had planned it all .