Three o'clock
`` She is n't back yet , sir , '' was Mrs. Jacobs ' reply . `` I got this note from her this morning to say that she would be here by twelve , but it 's twenty past now , so I suppose that she has missed the train or changed her mind ; but there will be another in at three , so perhaps you had best wait for that , sir . '' Philip was put out by this contretemps , but at the same time he was relieved to find that he had a space to breathe in before the inevitable and dreadful moment of exposure and infamy , for he had grown afraid of his wife . Three o'clock came in due course , but no Hilda . Philip was seriously disturbed ; but there was now no train by which she could arrive that day , so he was forced to the conclusion that she had postponed her departure . There were now two things to be done , one to follow her down to where she was staying -- for he had ascertained her address from Mrs. Jacobs ; the other , to return home and come back on the morrow . For reasons which appeared to him imperative , but which need not be entered into here , he decided on the latter course ; so leaving a note for his wife , he drove , in a very bad temper , back to Paddington in time to catch the five o'clock train to Roxham .