three o'clock
It was , as has been said , an early Victorian household , conducted on early Victorian lines . Other people might be content to buy half their supplies ready-made from the stores , but Miss Briskett insisted on home-made bread , home-made jams and cakes ; home - made pickles and sauces ; home-cured tongues and hams , and home-made liqueurs . Cook kept the tweeny busy in the kitchen , while Mary grumbled at having to keep half a dozen unused bedrooms in spick and span perfection , and Mason spent her existence in polishing , and sweeping invisible grains of dust from out-of-the-way-corners . As a rule the domestic wheel turned on oiled wheels and Miss Briskett 's existence flowed on its even course , from one year 's end to another , with little but the weather to differentiate one month from another , but on the day on which this history begins , a thunderbolt had fallen in the shape of a letter bearing a New York post-mark , which the postman handed in at the door of The Nook at the three o'clock delivery . Miss Briskett read its contents , and gasped ; read them again , and trembled ; read them a third time , and sat buried in thought for ten minutes by the clock , at the expiration of which time she opened her own desk , and penned a note to her friend and confidant , Mrs Ramsden , of The Holt -- `` My dear Friend , -- I have just received a communication from America which is causing me considerable perturbation . If your engagements will allow , I should be grateful if you will take tea with me this afternoon , and give me the benefit of your wise counsel . Pray send a verbal answer by bearer .