about half past nine
Afternoon tea at the Inn was famous for the wonderful waffles produced with Parisian precision from a traditional Virginian recipe , but Collier Pratt never appeared at either of these meals to criticize them for being American . One night during the latter part of July Betty had a birthday , and according to immemorial custom Caroline and Nancy and Dick and Billy helped her to celebrate it at one of the old-fashioned down-town hotels where they had ordered practically the same dinner for her anniversaries ever since they had been grown up enough to celebrate them unchaperoned . Caroline 's brother , Preston , had made a sixth member of the party for the first two or three years , but he had been located in London since then , in charge of the English office of his firm , to which he had been suddenly appointed a month after he and Betty , who had been sweethearts , had had a spectacular quarrel . Nancy stayed by the celebration until about half past nine , and then Dick put her into a taxi-cab , and she fled back to her responsibilities as mistress of Outside Inn , agreeing to meet the others later for the rounding out of the evening . As she drew up before the big gate the courtyard seemed practically deserted . The waitresses were busy clearing away the few cluttered tables left by the last late guests , and in one sheltered corner a man and a girl were frankly holding hands across the table , while they whispered earnestly of some impending parting . The big canopy of striped awning cloth had been drawn over the tables , as the rather heavy air of the evening bad been punctured occasionally by a swift scattering of rain .