one o'clock
He had , he proclaimed , with the exception of Mr. Vane 's deplorable accident , never spent a better day in his life . Victoria wondered at her own spirits , which were feverish , as she listened to transatlantic gossip about girls she had known who had married Mr. Rangely 's friends , and stories of Westminster and South Africa , and certain experiences of Mr. Rangely 's at other places than Leith on the American continent , which he had grown sufficiently confidential to relate . At times , lifting her eyes to him as he sat smoking after dinner on the other side of the library fire , she almost doubted his existence . He had come into her life at one o'clock that day -- it seemed an eternity since . And a subconscious voice , heard but not heeded , told her that in the awakening from this curious dream he would be associated in her memory with tragedy , just as a tune or a book or a game of cards reminds one of painful periods of one 's existence . To-morrow the -- episode would be a nightmare ; to-night her one desire was to prolong it . And poor Mr. Rangely little imagined the part he was playing -- as little as he deserved it .