About seven o’clock
she said gently , kissing him on the forehead and drawing back . ` I hear Mary calling , and nurse is out . ' The days went on and the date of Madame de Netteville 's dinner party had come round . About seven o'clock that evening Catherine sat with the child in the drawing-room , expecting Robert . He had gone off early in the afternoon to the East End with Hugh Flaxman to take part in a committee of workmen organized for the establishment of a choral union in R -- , the scheme of which had been Flaxman 's chief contribution so far to the Elgood Street undertaking . It seemed to her as she sat there working , the windows open on to the bit of garden , where the trees are already withered and begrimed , that the air without and her heart within were alike stifling and heavy with storm . _ Something _ must put an end to this oppression , this misery !