six o'clock
Fanny had an advantage over him there , for all her aspirations turned inward to their love , their home and children ; and his ... but if he knew their goal he could have beaten life . * * * * * Footfalls approaching over the hall -- the maid to tell him dinner was served -- brought him sharply to his feet , and he hurried down to where Fanny , who liked to do such things , had finished lighting the candles on the table . In reply to the glance of interrogation at his inappropriate clothes he explained that , trivially occupied , he had been unaware of the flight of time . Throughout dinner Fanny and he said little ; their children had a supper at six o'clock , and at seven were sent to bed ; so there were commonly but two at the other table . He had an occasional glimpse of his wife , behind a high centerpiece of late chrysanthemums , the color of bright copper pennies and hardly larger ; and he was struck , as he was so often , by Fanny 's youthful appearance ; but that was n't , he decided , so much because of her actual person -- although since her marriage she had shown practically no change -- as from a spirit of rigorous purity ; she was , in spite of everything , Lee realized , completely virginal in mind . The way she sat and walked , with her elbows close to her body and her high square shoulders carried forward , gave her an air of eagerness , of youthful hurry . Perhaps she grew more easily tired now than formerly ; her face then seemed thinner than ever , the temples sunken and cheek-bones evident , and her eyes startling in their size and blueness and prominence .