twelve
o'clock
Two things were in her favour in this latter respect , one that they saw very little of each other , since Mr. Egremont seldom emerged from his own rooms till after luncheon ; and the other that Ursula 's brains ran to little but lawn-tennis for the ensuing weeks . To hold a champion 's place at the tournaments , neck and neck with her cousin Blanche , and defeat Miss Ruthven , and that veteran player , Miss Basset , was her foremost ambition , and the two cousins would have practised morning , noon , and night if their mothers would have let them . There need have been no fear of Ursula 's rebellion about the Cambridge honours , she never seemed even to think of them , and would have had no time in the more important competition of rackets . Indeed , it was almost treated as a hardship that the pair were forbidden to rush together before twelve o'clock , and that Ursula 's mother insisted on rational home occupation until that time , setting the example herself by letter-writing , needlework , and sharing in the music which was a penance to the girl , only enforced by that strong sense of protecting affection which forbade rebellion . But Alice could hope that their performances were pleasant to her husband in the evening , if only to sleep by , and so she persisted in preparing for them . Nuttie 's rage for tennis , and apparent forgetfulness of her old life and aspirations , might be disappointing , but it conduced to make her mother 's task easier than if she had been her original , critical , and protesting self . In the new and brilliant surroundings she troubled herself much less than could have been expected at the failure of her father , his house , nay , and of the parish itself , in coming up to the St. Ambrose standard .