two o'clock
Nicholas had professed himself ready to ask a favour of the devil himself under the circumstances ; and Chris himself continued to support the lawyer 's opinion . He repeated his arguments again and again . Then it was necessary to make an appointment with the Archbishop ; and a day was fixed at last . My Lord would see them , wrote a secretary , at two o'clock on the afternoon of July the third . Beatrice sat through that long hot afternoon in the window-seat of the upstairs parlour , looking out over the wide river below , conscious perhaps for the first time of the vast weight of responsibility that rested on her . She had seen them go off in a wherry , the father and son with Nicholas in the stern , and the lawyer facing them on the cross-bench ; they had been terribly silent as they walked down to the stairs ; had stood waiting there without a word being spoken but by herself , as the wherry made ready ; and she had talked hopelessly , desperately , to relieve the tension . Then they had gone off .