August noon
Also Ben Lockwood attended -- Blinky 's first cousin and senior . Duncan described the function in a letter to Kellogg as the time of his young life . Undoubtedly it was in certain respects singular in his experience . The entire party walked home from church through a hot August noon , with that air of chastened joy common to a gathering of relations -- an atmosphere of festive gloom and funeral baked meats painfully enlivened by exhilarating jests from old Ben , who was a connoisseur of vintages when it came to jokes . Duncan wished fervently , first that he might expire ; secondly , and with greater intensity of feeling , that they all might die . Minta Lockwood , he felt , was slowly but expertly greasing him with adulation -- as a python prepares its prey before dining -LRB- or is it a python ? -RRB- -- and he knew he was presently to be swallowed alive .