nine o'clock
`` He says any sandwich with the crust cut off is unworthy a man 's attention . '' `` Tell him for me that he 's mistaken . No crust on mine , but a whole slice of bread to make up for the loss , '' and he paid his bill enthusiastically and packed away into his thermos box a goodly pile of the much-to-be-enjoyed sandwiches . People for every meal of the day began to appear at the Motor Inn , for it was surprising how many parties made a before-breakfast start to avoid the heat of the day on a long trip , and turned up at the Inn about eight or nine o'clock demanding coffee and an omelette . Then one or two Rosemont people came to ask if friends of theirs might be accommodated with rooms and board for a week or two , and in this way the old house by the road grew rapidly to be more like the inn its sign called it than the tea room it was intended to be . Servants were added , another veranda was built on , and it looked as if Miss Foster would not teach dancing when winter came again but would have to devote herself to the management of the village hotel which the town had always needed . It was while the members of the U.S.C. were eating ices and cakes there late one afternoon when they had walked to the station with the departing Watkinses that the Ethels had one of the ideas that so often struck them at almost the same moment .