six o'clock
Yes , even though all the boys are round me -- Bobby on this side , the Brat on that -- Algy directly in front ; all behaving nicely , too ; for are not they right under father 's eyes ? Yes , and , for the matter of that , under the rector 's too , as he towers straight above us , under his ivy-bush -- the ivy-bush into which Bobby was so anxious yesterday to insert some misletoe . Church is over now , and the short afternoon has also slipped by . We are at dinner ; we are dining early to-night -- at half-past six o'clock , and we are to have a dance for the servants afterward . Any hospitality to my equals I have steadily and stoutly declined , but it seems a shame to visit my own loneliness on the heads of the servants , to whom it is nothing . They have always had a Christmas-dance in Roger 's reign , and so a dance they are to have now . We have religiously eaten our beef and plum-pudding , and have each made a separate little blue fire of burnt brandy in our spoon .