three
o’clock
I have always kept her first letters about it , always shall . For months after , while the expedition still raged after snipers and rifle-thieves , I discussed with Lady Chichele the probable outcome of it all . I have sometimes felt ashamed of leaping as straight as I did with Anna to what we thought the inevitable . I based no calculation on all Mrs. Harbottle had gone back to , just as I had based no calculation on her ten years ' companionship in arms when I kept her from the three o'clock train . This last was a retrospection in which Anna naturally could not join me ; she never knew , poor dear , how fortunate as to its moment was the campaign she deplored , and nothing to this day can have disturbed her conviction that the bond she was at such magnificent pains to strengthen , held against the strain , as long , happily , as the supreme need existed . ` How right you were ! ' she often said .