nine o'clock
His habit has been to put up his chauffeur close by this garage , and telephone when he wants to use the car ; but the chauffeur was paid off and sent away ten days ago , at about the time when Terry decided that the automobile must be sold . He had not been in spirits for a drive since , until the fateful day of the advertisement , but immediately after our luncheon with the Countess he had walked down to the garage and stayed until dinner-time . What he had been doing there he did not deign to state ; but I had a dim idea that when you went to call on a motor-car in its den , you spent hours on your back bolting nuts , or accelerating silencers , or putting the crank head -LRB- and incidentally your own -RRB- into an oil bath ; and I supposed that Terry had been doing these things . When he returned on Wednesday , Thursday , and Friday , spending several hours on each occasion , I went on supposing the same ; but when at nine o'clock on Saturday morning he drove up to the garden gate after another trip to Mentone , I had a surprise . Terry had almost bitten off my head when I had innocently proposed to have his car smartened up to suit the taste of the Countess ; but , without saying a word to me , he had been at work improving its appearance . `` She '' -LRB- as he invariably calls his beloved vehicle -RRB- was dressed in grey as before , but it was fresh , glossy grey , still smelling of turpentine . The tyres were new , and white , and a pair of spare ones were tied onto the motor 's bonnet , which looked quite jaunty now in its clean lead-coloured paint .