one o'clock
Mrs. Durgin confessed to having no part in it ; but she had kept pace , with Cynthia Whitwell 's help , in the housekeeping . As Jackson had cautiously felt his way to the needs of their public in the enlargement and rearrangement of the hotel , the two housewives had watchfully studied , not merely the demands , but the half-conscious instincts of their guests , and had responded to them simply and adequately , in the spirit of Jackson 's exterior and structural improvements . The walls of the new rooms were left unpapered and their floors uncarpeted ; there were thin rugs put down ; the wood-work was merely stained . Westover found that he need not to ask especially for some hot dish at night ; there was almost the abundance of a dinner , though dinner was still at one o'clock . Mrs. Durgin asked him the first day if he would not like to go into the serving-room and see it while they were serving dinner . She tried to conceal her pride in the busy scene -- the waitresses pushing in through one valve of the double-hinged doors with their empty trays , and out through the other with the trays full laden ; delivering their dishes with the broken victual at the wicket , where the untouched portions were put aside and the rest poured into the waste ; following in procession along the reeking steamtable , with its great tanks of soup and vegetables , where , the carvers stood with the joints and the trussed fowls smoking before them , which they sliced with quick sweeps of their blades , or waiting their turn at the board where the little plates with portions of fruit and dessert stood ready . All went regularly on amid a clatter of knives and voices and dishes ; and the clashing rise and fall of the wire baskets plunging the soiled crockery into misty depths , whence it came up clean and dry without the touch of finger or towel .