about six in the evening
This unrighteous contract being thus settled , he was so eager to be put in possession , that he insisted on being introduced to drink tea with me that afternoon , when we were to be left alone ; nor would he hearken to the procuress 's remonstrances , that I was not sufficiently prepared , and ripened for such an attack ; that I was too green and untamed , having been scarce twenty-four hours in the house : it is the character of lust to be impatient , and his vanity arming him against any supposition of other than the common resistance of a maid on those occasions , made him reject all proposals of a delay , and my dreadful trial was thus fixed , unknown to me , for that very evening . At dinner , Mrs. Brown and Phoebe did nothing but run riot in praise of this wonderful cousin , and how happy that woman would be that he would favour with his addresses ; in short my two gossips exhausted all their rhetoric to persuade me to accept them : `` that the gentleman was violently smitten with me at first sight ; that he would make my fortune if I would be a good girl and not stand in my own light ; that I should trust his honour ; that I should be made for ever , and have a chariot to go abroad in , '' with all such stuff as was fit to turn the head of such a silly ignorant girl as I then was : but luckily here my aversion had taken already such deep root in me , my heart was so strongly defended from him by my senses , that wanting the art to mask my sentiments , I gave them no hopes of their employer succeeding , at least very easily , with me . The glass too marched pretty quick , with a view , I suppose , to make a friend of the warmth of my constitution , in the minutes of the imminent attack . Thus they kept me pretty long at table , and about six in the evening , after I had retired to my apartment , and the tea board was set , enters my venerable mistress , followed close by that satyr , who came in grinning in a way peculiar to him , and by his odious presence , confirmed me in all the sentiments of detestation which his first appearance had given birth to . He sat down fronting me , and all tea time kept ogling me in a manner that gave me the utmost pain and confusion , all the mark of which he still explained to be my bashfulness , and not being used to see company . Tea over , the commoding old lady pleady urgent business -LRB- which indeed was true -RRB- to go out , and earnestly desired me to entertain her cousin kindly till she came back , both for my own sake and her ; and then , with a `` Pray , sir , be very good , be very tender to the sweet child , '' she went out of the room , leaving me staring , with my mouth open , and unprepared by the suddenness of her departure , to oppose it . We were now alone ; and on that idea a sudden fit of trembling seized me .