ten o'clock
`` I did n't care a great deal about going anyway . '' He refused to listen to her suggestion that she should stay also . Lines of motors were rolling down the road from early morning onward , filled with flannel-coated or befrilled holiday makers or laden with farmers and farmers ' wives and farmers ' children . Janet and Mrs. Brown , the one an excited flutter of white organdie skirts , the other a ponderous rustle of tight brown taffeta , departed at ten o'clock and by one the great house was empty of all save Oliver and Cousin Jasper . The afternoon seemed very still and very long , as one hour followed another . Oliver strolled out to the gate and stood looking down the road , but the procession of motors had long since come to an end , so that the highway stretched , white and empty , to the far end of the valley . Yet as he stood , idly staring out in the hot quiet , he thought that he saw a small , dilapidated vehicle come round a distant turn and advance slowly toward him .