half past three in the
afternoon
`` I assure you , Lady Chandos , that it is true . Captain Blake spoke to him there , and Lady Evelyn saw him . Madame Vanira was with him . '' The speakers were Lady Chandos and Lady Ilfield ; the place was the drawing-room at Stoneland House ; the time was half past three in the afternoon ; and Lady Ilfield had called on her friend because the news which she had heard preyed upon her mind and she felt that she must reveal it . Like all mischief-makers Lady Ilfield persuaded herself that she was acting upon conscientious motives ; she herself had no nonsensical ideas about singers and actresses ; they were quite out of her sphere , quite beneath her notice , and no good , she was in the habit of saying , ever came from associating with them . She had met Madame Vanira several times at Stoneland House , and had always felt annoyed over it , but her idea was that a singer , an actress , let her be beautiful as a goddess and talented above all other women , had no right to stand on terms of any particular friendship with Lord Chandos . Lady Ilfield persuaded herself it was her duty , her absolute Christian duty , to let Lady Chandos know what was going on .