six o'clock
`` My duty is clear enough , '' he thought -- `` not the less clear because it leads me step by step , carrying ruin and desolation with me , to the home I love . I must begin at the other end -- I must begin at the other end , and discover the history of Helen Talboys from the hour of George 's departure until the day of the funeral in the churchyard at Ventnor . '' Mr. Audley hailed a passing hansom , and drove back to his chambers . He reached Figtree Court in time to write a few lines to Miss Talboys , and to post his letter at St. Martin 's - le-Grand off before six o'clock . `` It will save me a day , '' he thought , as he drove to the General Post Office with this brief epistle . He had written to Clara Talboys to inquire the name of the little seaport town in which George had met Captain Maldon and his daughter ; for in spite of the intimacy between the two young men , Robert Audley knew very few particulars of his friend 's brief married life . From the hour in which George Talboys had read the announcement of his wife 's death in the columns of the Times , he had avoided all mention of the tender history which had been so cruelly broken , the familiar record which had been so darkly blotted out .