about seven o'clock
The boats came flashing by at last , and there was the usual excitement amongst the spectators ; but it seemed to Gilbert that Mrs. Branston found more interest in John Saltram 's conversation than in the race . It is possible she had seen too many such contests to care much for the result of this one . She scarcely looked up as the boats shot by , but sat with her little gloved hands clasped upon her knee , and her bright face turned towards John Saltram . They all went into the house at about seven o'clock , after a good deal of croquet and flirtation , and found a free-and-easy kind of banquet , half tea , half luncheon , but very substantial after its kind , waiting for them in the long low dining-room . Mrs. Branston was very popular as a hostess , and had a knack of bringing pleasant people round her -- journalists and musical men , clever young painters who were beginning to make their mark in the art-world , pretty girls who could sing or play well , or talk more or less brilliantly . Against nonentities of all kinds Adela Branston set her face , and had a polite way of dropping people from whom she derived no amusement , pleading in her pretty childish way that it was so much more pleasant for all parties . That this mundane existence of ours was not intended to be all pleasure , was an idea that never yet troubled Adela Branston 's mind .