late six o'clock
Mrs. Carmichael took the place offered to her daughter , and Marjorie Thomas and Mr. Terry volunteered to make up the required number . It seemed such a long time till Saturday morning , but Marjorie tried to shorten it , by running everywhere and telling everybody that Eugene was coming . The whole house caught the infection . Tryphena and Tryphosa were kept busy , preparing already for a late six o'clock dinner on the morrow . There was a putting of rooms in order for the coming guests , during which Miss Carmichael , conscience stricken , returned the lawyer 's verses to the leaves of Browning . She dreaded meeting the author of them , and found comfort in the fact that he was not coming alone . If she had not been , in her own estimation , such a coward , she would have gone on a visit to Fanny , but she dared not thus offend her uncle and aunt , and desert her mother and Cecile .