three o’clock
A love for a deformed man would be odious in any woman , in a sister intolerable . But if she had been carrying on any kind of intercourse whatever with Philip , a stop must be put to it at once ; she was disobeying her father 's strongest feelings and her brother 's express commands , besides compromising herself by secret meetings . He left home the next morning in that watchful state of mind which turns the most ordinary course of things into pregnant coincidences . That afternoon , about half-past three o'clock , Tom was standing on the wharf , talking with Bob Jakin about the probability of the good ship Adelaide coming in , in a day or two , with results highly important to both of them . `` Eh , '' said Bob , parenthetically , as he looked over the fields on the other side of the river , `` there goes that crooked young Wakem . I know him or his shadder as far off as I can see 'em ; I 'm allays lighting on him o ' that side the river . '' A sudden thought seemed to have darted through Tom 's mind .