five o'clock
Miriam looked indeed still handsomer than before , and she had taken up her attitude again with a splendid , sphinx-like air of being capable of keeping it for ever . Nick said nothing , but went back to work with a tingle of confusion , which began to act after he had resumed his palette as a sharp , a delightful stimulus . Miriam spoke never a word , but she was doubly grand , and for more than an hour , till Nick , exhausted , declared he must stop , the industrious silence was broken only by the desultory discourse of their friend . Nick went to Great Stanhope Street at five o'clock and learned , rather to his surprise , that Julia was not at home -- to his surprise because he had told her he would come at that hour , and he attributed to her , with a certain simplicity , an eager state of mind in regard to his explanation . Apparently she was not eager ; the eagerness was his own -- he was eager to explain . He recognised , not without a certain consciousness of magnanimity in doing so , that there had been some reason for her quick withdrawal from his studio or at any rate for her extreme discomposure there . He had a few days before put in a plea for a snatch of worship in that sanctuary and she had accepted and approved it ; but the worship , when the curtain happened to blow back , showed for that of a magnificent young woman , an actress with disordered hair , who wore in a singular degree the appearance of a person settled for many hours .