ten
o'clock
Two guests -- members of the Tatham family -- had invited themselves , much to Lady Tatham 's annoyance . And certain neighbours were coming to dine ; among them Mrs. Penfold and her daughters . Dinner was laid in a white-pillared loggia , built by an `` Italianate '' Lord Tatham in the eighteenth century on the western side of the house , communicating with the dining-room behind it , and with the Italian garden in front . It commanded the distant blue line of the Keswick and Ullswater mountains , and a foreground of wood and crag , while the Italian garden to which the marble steps of the loggia descended , with its formal patterns of bright colour , blue , purple , and crimson , lay burning in the afterglow of sunset light , which , in a northern July , will let you read till ten o'clock . The guests gathered on the circle of smooth-shaven grass that in the centre made a space around a fountain , with a gleaming water nymph . A broad grass pathway led them to the house , so that guests emerging from it arrived in rather spectacular fashion -- well seen , against the ivied walls of the castle , to the unfair advantage , as usual , of grace and good looks . Before hostess or neighbours appeared , however , Mr. Delorme and a certain Gerald Tatham , Lady Tatham 's brother-in-law , had the green circle to themselves .