eight o'clock in the evening
The peaceful little home on the solitary sandy shore was assailed , unwarned , beneath a quiet sky , some hours later , by a whirlwind , a dust-storm , and rattling volleys . Miss Vincent 's discovery , in the past school-days , of Selina Collett 's ` wicked complicity in a clandestine correspondence ' had memorably chastened the girl , who vowed at the time when her schoolmistress , using the rod of Johnsonian English for the purpose , exposed the depravity of her sinfulness , that she would never again be guilty of a like offence . Her dear and lovely Countess of Ormont , for whom she then uncomplainingly suffered , who deigned now to call her friend , had spoken the kind good-bye , and left the house after Mr. Weyburn 's departure that same day ; she , of course , to post by Harwich to London ; he to sail by packet from the port of Harwich for Flushing . The card of an unknown lady , a great lady , the Lady Charlotte Eglett , was handed to her mother at eight o'clock in the evening . Lady Charlotte was introduced to the innocent country couple ; the mother knitting , the daughter studying a book of the botany of the Swiss Alps , dreaming a distant day 's journey over historic lands of various hues to the unimaginable spectacle of earth 's grandeur . Her visit lasted fifteen minutes . From the moment of her entry , the room was in such turmoil as may be seen where a water-mill wheel 's paddles are suddenly set rounding to pour streams of foam on the smooth pool below .