about eleven o'clock
Already he had planned for the present August a tour among the Hebrides , and had made it out with his maps and guidebooks , not without careful consideration of expense . Why did he linger beyond the day on which he had decided to set forth ? For several days it had been noticed at the mill that he lacked something of his wonted attention in matters of business . Certainly his occupation about eleven o'clock one morning had little apparent bearing on the concerns of his office ; he was standing at the window of his private room , which was on the first floor of the mill , with a large field-glass at his eyes . The glass was focussed upon the Cartwrights ' garden , in which sat Jessie with Emily Hood . They were but a short distance away , and Dagworthy could observe them closely ; he had done so , intermittently , for almost an hour , and this was the second morning that he had thus amused himself . Yet , to judge from his face , when he turned away , amusement was hardly his state of mind ; his features had a hard-set earnestness , an expression almost savage .