five o'clock
Barty met the three Royces , walking with an old gentleman of aristocratic appearance , and a very nice-looking young one -LRB- who was Captain Graham-Reece -RRB- . The Admiral gave him a friendly nod -- Lady Jane a nod that almost amounted to a cut direct . But the divine Julia gave him a look and a smile that were warm enough to make up for much maternal frigidity . Later on , in a tobacconist 's shop , he again met the Admiral , who introduced him to the aristocratic old gentleman , Mr. Beresford Duff , secretary to the Admiralty -- who evidently knew all about him , and inquired quite affectionately after Lady Caroline , and invited him to come and drink tea at five o'clock : a new form of hospitality of his own invention -- it has caught on ! Barty lunched at the König 's Hotel table d'hôte , which was crowded , principally with English people , none of whom he had ever met or heard of . But from these he heard a good deal of the Royces and Captain Graham-Reece and Mr. Beresford Duff , and other smart people who lived in furnished houses or expensive apartments away from the rest of the world , and were objects of general interest and curiosity among the smaller British fry . Riffrath was a microcosm of English society , from the lower middle class upwards , with all its respectabilities and incompatibilities and disabilities -- its narrownesses and meannesses and snobbishnesses , its gossipings and backbitings and toadyings and snubbings -- delicate little social things of England that foreigners do n't understand !