the hour of seven in the evening
he added grimly . Downe murmured in an unconvinced tone that he thought he had seen it yesterday . Talking thus they drove into the town . The street was unusually still for the hour of seven in the evening ; an increasing drizzle had prevailed since the afternoon , and now formed a gauze across the yellow lamps , and trickled with a gentle rattle down the heavy roofs of stone tile , that bent the house-ridges hollow-backed with its weight , and in some instances caused the walls to bulge outwards in the upper story . Their route took them past the little town-hall , the Black-Bull Hotel , and onward to the junction of a small street on the right , consisting of a row of those two-and-two windowed brick residences of no particular age , which are exactly alike wherever found , except in the people they contain . ` Wait -- I 'll drive you up to your door , ' said Barnet , when Downe prepared to alight at the corner . He thereupon turned into the narrow street , when the faces of three little girls could be discerned close to the panes of a lighted window a few yards ahead , surmounted by that of a young matron , the gaze of all four being directed eagerly up the empty street .