four o'clock
The girl handed him the study with a look of almost doglike gratitude in her narrow gray eyes . Lucien had never said so much to her before , though the whole atelier had noticed how often he had been coming to her easel lately , and had disparaged her in corners accordingly . She looked at the tiny silver watch she wore in a leather strap on her left wrist -- he had spent nearly five minutes with her this time , watching her work and talking to her , in itself a triumph . It was almost four o'clock , and the winter daylight was going ; presently they would all stop work . Partly for the pleasure of being chaffed and envied and complimented in the anteroom in the general washing of brushes , and partly to watch Lucien 's rapid progress among the remaining easels , Mademoiselle Palicsky deliberately sat down , in a prematurely vacant chair , slung one slender little limb over the other , and waited . As she sat there a generous thought rose above her exultation . She hoped everybody else in the atelier had guessed what Lucien was saying to her all that while , and had seen him carry off her day 's work , but not the little American .