four o'clock
And Aunt Laura had replied that she had thought the same thing herself , and did Ellen remember how dear Anne , who was always one to say out what she wanted , had asked him if he thought it might be done , but he had said -- quite kindly -- that the trees had always been there , and there they would stay . The two old ladies welcomed Cicely as if she had been a princess with whom it was their privilege to be on terms of affectionate intimacy . She was , in fact , a princess in their little world , the daughter of the reigning monarch , to whom they owed , and gave , loyal allegiance . Aunt Laura had been up to the house that morning and heard that they were to return by the half-past four o'clock train . They had been quite sure that Cicely would come to see them at once and tell them all her news , and they had debated whether they would wait for their own tea or not . They had , in fact , waited for a quarter of an hour . They told her all this in minute detail , and only by painstaking insistence was Aunt Ellen herself prevented from rising to ring the bell for a fresh supply to be brought in .