six o'clock
Make a thousand regrets to Madam Semple and my aunt for me . '' Neil 's calm , complacent gravity was unendurable . He turned from him abruptly , and , muttering passionate exclamations , went to the river-bank for a boat . Often he had seen Katherine between five and six o'clock at the foot of the Van Heemskirk garden ; for it was then possible for her to slip away while madam was busy about her house , and Joanna and Batavius talking over their own affairs . And this evening he felt that the very intensity of his desire must surely bring her to their trysting-place behind the lilac hedge . Whether he was right or wrong , he did not consider ; for he was not one of those potent men who have themselves in their own power . Nor had it ever entered his mind that `` love 's strength standeth in love 's sacrifice , '' or that the only love worthy of the name refuses to blend with anything that is low or vindictive or clandestine .