two o'clock
As you set foot in the pinched passage , the sound of your tread proves the whole fabric a thing of lath and sand . The ceilings , the walls , confess themselves neither water-tight nor air-tight . Whatever you touch is at once found to be sham . In the kitchen of one of these houses , at two o'clock on a Saturday afternoon in September , three young people were sitting down to the dinner-table : a girl of nearly fourteen , her sister , a year younger , and their brother not yet eleven . All were decently dressed , but very poorly ; a glance at them , and you knew that in this house there was little money to spend on superfluities . The same impression was produced by the appointments of the kitchen , which was disorderly , too , and spoke neglect of the scrubbing-brush . As for the table , it was ill laid and worse supplied .