About three o'clock
`` No , no , Father Dan , '' he said , `` it is only your good nature which you mistake for a happy presentiment . Look out for a new curate . '' * * * * * The events of the afternoon , indeed , did not promise favorably for my forecast . About three o'clock , whilst Father Letheby was absent , a side-car drove into the village , from which two men alighted ; and having made inquiries , proceeded to Father Letheby 's house , and told the bewildered and frightened Lizzie that they had come to take possession . Lizzie , like a good Irish girl , stormed and raged , and went for the police , and threatened the vengeance of the Superior Courts , at which they laughed and proceeded to settle themselves comfortably in the kitchen . Great fear fell , then , upon the village , and great wrath smouldered in many breasts ; and , as surely as if they had lighted beacon-fires , or sent mounted couriers far and wide , the evil news was flashed into the remotest mountain nooks and down to the hermitages of the fishermen . And there was wrath , feeble and impotent , for here was the law , and behind the law was the omnipotence of England .