two o'clock
Hilda continued smoothly to descend the stairs , and followed her mother into the sitting-room . The linen money-bag and the account-book , proper to the last Wednesday in the month , lay on the green damask cloth of the round table where Hilda and her mother took their meals . A paralytic stroke had not been drastic enough to mar Mr. Skellorn 's most precious reputation for probity and reliability . His statement of receipts and expenditure , together with the corresponding cash , had been due at two o'clock , and despite the paralytic stroke it was less than a quarter of an hour late . On one side of the bag and the book were ranged the older women , -- Mrs. Lessways , thin and vivacious , and Mrs. Grant , large and solemn ; and on the other side , as it were in opposition , the young , dark , slim girl with her rather wiry black hair , and her straight , prominent eyebrows , and her extraordinary expression of uncompromising aloofness . `` She 's just enjoying it , that 's what she 's doing ! '' said Hilda to herself , of Mrs. Grant .