five o’clock
The cry her confession had wrung from him was always in his mind : ` What have I done ? My God , what _ have _ I done ? ' These days were a stern discipline , but they came to an end at last . A note reached him at the end of a week in which Mrs. Hampton presented her compliments to Mr. Armstrong , with a request that he would call that afternoon at five o'clock . This , of course , conveyed no certainty to him in either one direction or another , but it awoke an extraordinary tumult in his mind , and he found himself in the neighbourhood of the Prahran villa a full hour before the time appointed . He sauntered in the broiling heat and blinding light until he lost himself repeatedly in strange places and rang at the doors of strange houses to inquire his way back again , quite frenzied by the fear of missing his appointment In effect , he arrived at the instant , and was ushered into the room he had already visited . Mrs. Hampton sat there , looking very pale and stern , he thought , and she rose upon his entrance and offered him her hand .