six
o’clock
For just as Valetta and Mysie threw themselves on the big bunches of hepatica and the white narcissus , a roar , worthy of the clip-tailed lions , proceeded from the window , and the demand , ` Who is picking my roses ? ' Primrose in terror threw herself on Gillian with a little scream . Wilfred crept behind the walls , but after the general start there was an equally universal laugh , for between the stout mullions of the oriel window Lord Rotherwood 's face was seen , and Sir Jasper 's behind him . Great was the jubilation , and there was a rush to the tall door , up the dilapidated steps , where curls of fern were peeping out ; but the gentlemen called out that only the back-door could be opened , and the intention of a ` real grand exploration ' was cut short by Miss Elbury 's declaring that she was bound not to let Phyllis stay out till six o'clock . Fly , in her usual good-humoured way , suppressed her sighs and begged the others to explore without her , but the general vote declared this to be out of the question . Fly had too short a time to remain with her cousins to be forsaken even for the charms of ` the halls of Ivor , ' or the rival Beast 's Castle , as Gillian called it , which , after all , would not run away . ` But it might be let , ' said Mysie .