four o'clock in the afternoon
He seemed quiet , she thought , and rather apart from the others . The journey down to Tonbridge proved slightly disastrous . To begin with , thanks to Daddy Brown himself , the company missed the best train of the day and had to travel by one that meant two changes . On arrival at Tonbridge at four o'clock in the afternoon they found that one of the stage property boxes had gone astray . Considering that they were billed to appear that evening at eight and the next train did not arrive till ten-thirty , the prospect was not a promising one . `` Always merry and bright , '' as Jimmie , the stage prompter , remarked in an aside to Strachan . `` By the way , is it the _ Arcadians _ that we are doing to-night ? ''