seven o'clock
The grown-ups followed suit . Motor-cars began to come down the short lane that ended at the gate of Holly Court , and joyous and chattering men and women to come in to tea . Nancy loved this , and to see a group of men standing about his blazing logs filled Bert 's heart with pride . It was rather demoralizing in a domestic sense , dinner was delayed , and their bedtime consequently delayed , and Dora , the cook was disgruntled at seven o'clock , when it was still impossible to set the dinner table . But Nancy , rather than disturb her guests , got a second servant , an enormous Irishwoman named Agnes , who carried the children off quietly for a supper in the kitchen , when tea-time callers came , and managed them far more easily than their mother could . Before the second summer came Nancy had come to be ashamed of some of her economies that first summer . Taking the children informally across the back of the empty Somers ' place , and letting them bathe on the deserted beach next to the club , wearing faded cottons , and picknicking as near as the Half Mile Light , seemed rather shabby performances .