about five in the afternoon
`` And , lo , the winter is past , the rain is over and gone , the flowers appear on the earth , the time of the singing of birds is come , and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land . '' But it was necessary to consider the details of lodging and feeding him . This she did most solicitously , and awaited the pregnant day and hour . It was about five in the afternoon when she heard a ring at the door and the editor 's brother 's voice in the hall . Poetess as she was , or as she thought herself , she had not been too sublime that day to dress with infinite trouble in a fashionable robe of rich material , having a faint resemblance to the chiton of the Greeks , a style just then in vogue among ladies of an artistic and romantic turn , which had been obtained by Ella of her Bond Street dressmaker when she was last in London . Her visitor entered the drawing-room . She looked towards his rear ; nobody else came through the door .