7 A.M.
She thought that standing for herself was not the thing ; yet she was full of character . Tall , with nose a trifle beaked , long , sloping chin , and an assured , benevolent mouth , showing , perhaps , too many teeth -- though thin , she was not unsubstantial . Her accent in speaking showed her heritage ; it was a kind of drawl which disregarded vulgar merits such as tone ; leaned on some syllables , and despised the final ` g ' -- the peculiar accent , in fact , of aristocracy , adding its deliberate joys to life . Shelton knew that she had many interests ; she was never really idle , from the time -LRB- 7 A.M. -RRB- when her maid brought her a little china pot of tea with a single biscuit and her pet dog , Tops , till eleven o'clock at night , when she lighted a wax candle in a silver candlestick , and with this in one hand , and in the other a new novel , or , better still , one of those charming volumes written by great people about the still greater people they have met , she said good-night to her children and her guests . No ! What with photography , the presidency of a local league , visiting the rich , superintending all the poor , gardening , reading , keeping all her ideas so tidy that no foreign notions might stray in , she was never idle . The information she collected from these sources was both vast and varied , but she never let it flavour her opinions , which lacked sauce , and were drawn from some sort of dish into which , with all her class , she dipped her fingers .