four o'clock
`` I admit it 's not half bad at times , but if this battered old headpiece of mine is to be of any further service to us , Liane , you must be careful not to turn it ! '' Once decided upon a course of action , Liane Delorme demonstrated that she could move with energy and decision uncommon in her kind . Under her masterly supervision , preparations accomplished themselves , as it were , by magic . It was , for example , nearer three than four o'clock when the expedition for Cherbourg left the door of her town-house and Paris by way of the Porte de Neuilly ; the limousine leading with that polished pattern of a chauffeur , Jules , at its wheel , as spick and span , firm of jaw and imperturbable of eye as when Lanyard had first noticed him in Nant ; the touring car trailing , with the footman Leon as driver , and not at all happy to find himself drafted in that capacity , if one might judge by a sullen sort of uneasiness in his look . Nothing was to be expected in the streets or suburbs , neither speed nor any indication of the intentions -LRB- if any -RRB- of Dupont . Lanyard spared himself the thankless trouble of watching to see if they were followed -- having little doubt they were -- and took his ease by the side of Liane Delorme . Chatting of old times , or sitting in grateful silence when Liane relapsed into abstraction -- something which she did with a frequency which testified to the heavy pressure of her thoughts -- he kept an appreciative eye on Jules , conceding at length that Liane 's adjective , superb , had been fitly applied to his driving .