half past six
He had explained to Mrs Courthope what he wanted the things for , and she had made no difficulty of sending them to the address he gave her . Lenorme had already begun the portrait , had indeed been working at it very busily , and was now quite ready for him to sit . The early morning being the only time a groom could contrive to spare -- and that involved yet earlier attention to his horses , they arranged that Malcolm should be at the study every day by seven o'clock , until the painter 's object was gained . So he mounted Kelpie at half past six of a fine breezy spring morning , rode across Hyde Park and down Grosvenor Place , and so reached Chelsea , where he put up his mare in Lenorme 's stable -- fortunately large enough to admit of an empty stall between her and the painter 's grand screw , else a battle frightful to relate might have fallen to my lot . Nothing could have been more to Malcolm 's mind than such a surpassing opportunity of learning with assurance what sort of man Lenorme was ; and the relation that arose between them extended the sittings far beyond the number necessary for the object proposed . How the first of them passed I must recount with some detail . As soon as he arrived , he was shown into the painter 's bedroom , where lay the portmanteau he had carried thither himself the night before : out of it , with a strange mingling of pleasure and sadness , he now took the garments of his father 's vanished state -- the filibeg of the dark tartan of his clan , in which green predominated ; the French coat of black velvet of Genoa , with silver buttons ; the bonnet , which ought to have had an eagle 's feather , but had only an aigrette of diamonds ; the black sporran of long goat 's hair , with the silver clasp ; the silver mounted dirk , with its appendages , set all with pale cairngorms nearly as good as oriental topazes ; and the claymore of the renowned Andrew 's forging , with its basket hilt of silver , and its black , silver mounted sheath .