eight o'clock
And the hounds and horses look so beautiful . '' Mrs Norton and Kitty spoke daily of invitations , and later on of cooking and the various things that were wanted . John continued to go through his accounts in the morning , and to read monkish Latin in the evening ; but he was secretly nervous , and he dreaded the approaching day . He was called an hour earlier -- eight o'clock ; he drank a cup of cold tea and ate a piece of dry toast in a back room . The dining-room was full of servants , who laid out a long table rich with comestibles and glittering with glass . Mrs Norton and Kitty were upstairs dressing . He wandered into the drawing-room and viewed the dead , cumbrous furniture ; the two cabinets bright with brass and veneer .