about four o'clock
He would be back at half-past four , would come in to tea . The Marquis and I were to dine there in the evening , so I am sure that would be time enough to have seen him . Grandmamma said it was no doubt the engagement-ring he had gone to London to buy , and that I _ really must _ receive it with a good grace . At about four o'clock , while I was reading aloud the oration of Bossuet on the funeral of Madame d'Orléans , the tuff-tuff-tuff of a motorcar was heard , and it drew up at our gate and out got Sir Antony Thornhirst and Lady Tilchester . Although I could see them with the corner of my eye , and grandmamma could too , I should not have dared to have stopped my reading , and was actually in the middle of a sentence when Hephzibah announced them . I did not forget to make my _ révérence _ this time , and grandmamma half rose from her chair . Lady Tilchester has the most lovely manners .