five o'clock
Many of her old Degraw street and South Oxford street friends called at the new house , their affection being quickened by a desire `` to see what sort of style the Hilbroughs are putting on now . '' Some of her Brooklyn calls she returned out of a positive liking for good old friends , some because the callers were those who could introduce her to people she desired to know in New York . She excused herself from calling on the most of her trans-East-River acquaintances by urging that it is so much farther from New York to Brooklyn than it is from Brooklyn to New York , you know . She attended several large evening receptions in New York , and drank five o'clock tea at six in the evening at a good many places . She thus made acquaintances , while with a clever woman 's tact she kept her wits about her and began to `` get the hang of the thing , '' as she expressed it to one of her confidential friends . Meantime she was as constant in her attendance at the opera as she had been at the prayer-meeting in former days . It was at the beginning of her second winter in New York that she served notice on Hilbrough that she meant to give a reception ; or , as she put it , `` We must give a reception . ''