nearly four
o'clock
Beneath the car a dark stream of oil marked the road , and the oil still dripped from the differential case , where the back axle lay in two halves . `` I will telephone to your garage , '' her `` client '' had promised , as he climbed on to a passing lorry and continued his journey into Nancy . With that she had to be content , while she waited , first without her lunch , and then without her tea , for the breakdown lorry which his telephone message would eventually bring to her aid . Now it was nearly four o'clock . She had been hungry , but was hungry no longer . The bitter cold made her forehead ache , and though every moment the blue and mauve shades thickened upon the sky no flake of snow had fallen . Only last night , only twenty-four hours ago , she had been preparing for the dance ; and only last night she had said to Julien ... What had she said to Julien ?