four
o’clock in the afternoon
This would have been not unusual if he had called on a Mexican girl , especially if she belonged to one of the more old-fashioned families ; but he knew that American girls are left alone with their suitors if the suitor is at all welcome . He knew a little about this family from hear-say . They came from one of the larger factory towns in northern New York , and were supposed to be moderately wealthy . They used a very broad `` a '' and served tea at four o'clock in the afternoon . Gordon Roth was a Harvard graduate and did not conceal the fact . Neither did he conceal his hatred for this sandy little western town , where ill-health had doomed him to spend many of his days and perhaps to end them . The girl was strangely different from her mother and brother .